Shaheen Sehbai dismisses treason case, calls it a nonsensical move

 JournalismPakistan.com |  Published: 15 June 2023

ISLAMABAD-Senior journalist Shaheen Sehbai has brushed off a treason case against him, saying he has faced such threats throughout his journalistic career, terming it a nonsensical and ill-planned move.

In his response on Twitter, the veteran journalist in the US asked if merely criticizing the government makes one a terrorist.

Hearing the news that a treason case has been registered against him and other journalists for provoking people into violence on May 9, Sehbai said: “It was good to know that I was so powerful but this feeling did not last a few seconds as millions around the world condemned the arrest of Pakistan’s most popular leader and commented on the social media in their own way. So were they all also in my category?”

He added that his immediate response was “a loud laugh, utter amusement and surprise at the below-par intelligence the people at the helm of affairs were demonstrating.”

Sehbai said the May 9 incidents were a “people’s response to the arrest of Imran Khan which unfortunately took a wrong turn.” He pointed out that Khan was released in 48 hours, but his followers and protestors were rounded up in thousands and imprisoned throughout the country. A virtual ban on his party was imposed, and media censorship was clamped that banned any news channel to even name Imran Khan.

“As local media was gagged, people started listening to social media on Youtube, Facebook and Twitter and used their cell phone to communicate through WhatsApp and other groups. The flow of information did not stop.”

In this context, Sehbai said he also raised his voice “against the media clampdown and arrests of thousands of political workers and the highhandedness of the army and military authorities in punishing innocent people, including large number of women old men and activists.”

However, he added that such ill-planned cases are a norm in Pakistan. “So we now have a formal police case, filed by a citizen, who just heard some comments on Youtube or Facebook and mistakenly believed what he stated in the FIR. Such nonsensical charges against journalists and similar ill-considered responses by the top military brass are nothing new in Pakistan.”

He recalled a number of times when he was picked up by the intelligence agencies. “In 1990 ISI picked up five journalists in Islamabad as they came out of a briefing on Pak-Indian Secretary level talks. I was the youngest of them. They drove us for hours aimlessly and then took us to a hospital for blood and urine tests and booked us for having alcohol. They kept us away from our friends and families but when Islamabad journalists protested loudly, in 24 hours they took us handcuffed to a court where we were immediately bailed out.”

Sehbai said he vigorously contested the charges in a court of law, and as all charges were proved fake by medical tests results, we were all honorably acquitted.

In 1992, he added, during the second government of Nawaz Sharif, “there was a second attack on my home and three masked men broke in, beat up my kids and ransacked everything they could and left warning my son to tell me not to write again.”

In 2002 when he was the group editor of The News, Sehbai said an unnecessary confrontation began as he refused to apologize “in person” to the ISI for a news item by Karman Khan. “The then ‘Dirty Harry’ General Ehtesham Zameer, was so arrogant and in such high spirits he blocked all payments, ads and sale of all Jang Group newspapers. I stood my ground and resigned instead of meeting Gen. Zameer.”

But five years later, Sehbai said a retired General Zameer apologized to him in Islamabad Club. “They always offer regrets when they retire or off their uniform.”

He termed the latest case vague and which lacks sense. “The FIR alleges what I never said and not used even once any language that incites violence or terrorism. After 50 years in active journalism only an any insane mind could think of such a charge as I have written thousands of articles but never have been accused of any such thing.”

He said he was absolutely sure that “like the past, in a few months or so or even earlier, those who are being used to coerce the people and specially the media, will be meeting us privately and with clasped hands offering regrets and apologies.”