JournalismPakistan.com | Published May 24, 2023
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Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has called on Pakistan’s civilian government to ensure respect for the rule of law by immediately revealing where and in what condition is missing anchor Imran Riaz Khan.
RSF will hold the government responsible for any harm that may have come to him.
Imran Riaz Khan has been missing ever since his arrest on 11 May by police at Sialkot international airport. He was arrested under the Prevention of Violence order amid widespread protests in response to former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s arrest.
The police initially claimed that he was released at around 10:30 p.m. the same day, although they now acknowledge that he was taken away in a police van after his “release” by the police.
This admission was made at a hearing on 22 May before the high court in Lahore, at which the police had previously been ordered to produce the journalist in court in response to the complaint (known as a “first information report”) filed by his father on 16 May.
Clear admission
RSF has seen the transcript of the hearing. What the Punjab police inspector general told the court was an explicit acknowledgment of state responsibility. “We have asked police across Pakistan,” the inspector general said. “No one has Imran Riaz (...) Imran Riaz Khan was not wanted by us. However, ‘agencies’ had asked for a police van. Why they had asked for a police van, [the court] can summon the agencies and ask.”
According to confidential diplomatic sources consulted by RSF, the government’s silence about the TV anchor’s fate suggests that he may have fared badly since his abduction and may even have died in detention.
The TV anchor had become the military’s bugbear because of his and his TV channel’s support for former Prime Minister Imran Khan. He was previously arrested on 5 July 2022 on the basis of complaints filed by the prosecutor’s office in connection with his criticism of the power of the military and intelligence agencies. And he was detained again in February of his year until a judge ordered his release.—RSF
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