Throttling A Free Voice

The common strand in the three arrests is the peculiar charges framed against them. Afridi was arrested on charges of drug trafficking, Haqqani was arrested on corruption charges. And now, Sethi has been taken on charges of sedition.

Sethi was dragged out of his house in Lahore on May 8 by police, two in uniform, seven in plainclothes, all of them armed. They had no arrest warrant and threatened to shoot when Jugnu Mohsin, Sethi’s wife and The Friday Times publisher, asked to see one.

Later the same day, a federal government spokesman announced that Sethi had been taken into custody by the isi for interrogation for his alleged links with India’s raw. Sethi’s recent lecture in India (see p. 36) was apparently the main reason for the arrest. "It is suspected that the journalist has some nexus/connection with raw. He has projected a dismal picture of Pakistan at their behest to create despondency and doubts in the minds of Pakistanis...."

What’s closer to the truth is that Sethi’s newspaper had aroused the hostility of every government by its outspoken views. The latest round of troubles began when the government learnt that a bbc film crew was in Pakistan to make a film about Sharif along the lines of The Princess and the Playboy, a 1997 film on Benazir. Moreover, the bbc crew had interviewed Sethi, who had also figured prominently in the film about Benazir. In a letter to Sir John Birt, director general of the bbc, information minister Mushahid Hussain claimed the bbc team had resorted to surreptitious methods.

The all-powerful chairman of the Ehtesab, senator Saif-ur-Rahman, then reportedly called Sethi and accused him of engineering the whole thing: "You have brought the bbc to Pakistan," he stormed, "you are trying to malign the Sharifs because you want to overthrow the government".

The next day, newspapers carried a report by nni, an officially-run news agency, alleging that Sethi had evaded his taxes and was blackmailing the government by hobnobbing with the bbc. ptv accused Sethi of making anti-Pakistan statements in Delhi. On May 7, Khawaja Saad Rafiq, leader of the Muslim League youth wing, condemned Sethi for his ‘anti-Pakistan’ remarks.

In the words of Sethi, the government had panicked. "They have skeletons in their cupboards and they fear that I will reveal these on bbc TV. That is why they are trying to erode my credibility," Sethi had said, insisting that he had made no anti-Pakistan remarks. On May 7, the day before his arrest, The Friday Times published the full text of his lecture in Delhi.

His arrest the next day sparked a storm of protest. At a heavily attended press conference in Islamabad where journalists, representatives of ngos, ambassadors as well as the elite of the capital were present, Jugnu said the "right hand of the government did not know what the left was doing," and demanded to be allowed to see Sethi. But no answers were forthcoming, not even after the combined Opposition held the Upper House hostage on the issue of the mysterious disappearance of a high-profile editor. "There is no escape from Article 10 of the Constitution. It’s legally binding. Within 24 hours the accused has to be produced before a magistrate," stressed Opposition leader, Aitizaz Ahsan of the ppp. Imtiaz Alam fears the government’s next move would be to impose a Press Council to "further tighten executive rule over media".

The Foreign Office was stormed by worldwide condemnation of the government’s strong-arm tactics. Several diplomats and human rights groups expressed their outrage over the incident to Jugnu. Policymakers in the US who personally knew Sethi have also taken notice of his detention. Consequently, the US state department demanded his immediate release and an end to the crackdown on the press in Pakistan. The European Union, Amnesty International, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists and Henry Stimson Centre, joined the chorus for a free press.

We have much difficulty in trying to cover up what goes on in Pakistan. These events can no longer be kept secret. Alarm bells start to ring abroad as soon as such an incident takes place here," a senior Pakistani official told Outlook.

On the sixth day of Sethi’s arrest, a Foreign Office spokesman stated: "This is unwarranted interference in the internal affairs of Pakistan. Sethi has been arrested on the charge of anti-state activities, falling outside the ambit of legitimate journalistic freedom. The concerned agencies are carrying out investigation and he will be afforded full opportunity to defend himself in accordance with the law of the land." But now, reports also say Sethi could be tried in a military court-martial, despite being a civilian, if links with raw and violation of the Armed Forces Act are established.

On May 12, the Lahore High Court rejected a habeas corpus petition filed by Jugnu on the grounds that the matter was out of its jurisdiction since Sethi was arrested by an army agency (the isi) and was being tried under the Army Act.

However, Najam’s wife still that the isi director-general "clear the name of his agency" with respect to the arrest and detention of her husband. She told newsmen the federal government had implicated the isi in the ‘kidnapping’. "I know for sure that it was the job of the Punjab Police and the Intelligence Bureau and not the isi." This seemed to be substantiated by the official disclaimer put out on May 13, which contradicted earlier statements by denying the isi was involved. He’d merely been "handed over to the isi" for investigation, it stated.

At the trial, Lahore High Court lawyer Dr Khalid Ranja argued the isi had no legal cover as it was neither a branch of the army nor was it established under the Army Act. He said it was not the job of the isi to arrest or investigate; it was intended only to intimate the PM on special activities.

This was a reminder of a case last year when a journalist, Humayun Fur, was picked up on charges of anti-state activities. Tried and sentenced by the army in an in-camera trial, Fur was released to his family when he was on his death bed. Till date no one is clear what Fur’s alleged links with Indian agencies were.

The truth is that even today the state cannot make up its mind on the specific charges that Sethi was picked up for. Nor have they given a clear version of the modus operandi used. "The army is furious as they had no idea that the government was about to nab Sethi. They were handed Sethi on the second day for questioning. The army feels the government is trying to malign it for no fault of its own. This had happened also in the case of Rehmat Shah Afridi, who is in custody of the Anti-Narcotic Force which is headed by a serving general. Again, the army says that it has nothing to do with the bbc which is making a film on the political government," Shirin Mazari, a defense analyst and editor of Weekly Pulse, told Outlook.

Among all the upheaval, what is being overlooked is that Sethi’s arrest has adversely affected people-to-people contacts between India and Pakistan at a time when tensions had just seemed to have relaxed. To Pakistanis who openly maintained ties with Indians at home and during their frequent visits to India, and to the Pakistani media functionaries writing for Indian publications and visiting India in various capacities, the latest arrest has been an unforgivable blow.