Committee | Pakistan

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and 17 other press freedom and human rights organisations on Wednesday urged Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to take immediate steps to “uphold the country’s constitutional and international obligations” to protect press freedom. In a joint letter addressed to the premier, they said they were writing to express “deep concern regarding the sustained deterioration of media freedom in Pakistan”. The letter was endorsed by Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the International Press Institute, Forum Asia, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, and the Freedom Network, among other local and international groups. The letter said that the recent legal and institutional developments, alongside “persistent failures” to ensure accountability for attacks on journalists, had contributed to a worsening environment for members of the media in Pakistan. “We urge your government to take immediate action to uphold Pakistan’s obligations under the Constitut...

• CJCSC urged troop mobilisation • COAS cautioned against hasty escalation ISLAMABAD: The Natio­nal Secur­ity Committee (NSC) did not overrule the then army chief Gen Qamar Bajwa’s response plan during the 2019 Balakot crisis, according to at least two participants of that meeting who spoke on Monday. “The then army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa’s response strategy was agreed upon and executed by the Pakistan Air Force,” said a federal minister who attended the meeting, adding that the then chairman of the joint chiefs of staff committee, Gen Zubair Hayat, had proposed a more radical option that was not accepted. An armed forces official who also participated in the meeting gave a similar account, saying that then prime minister Imran Khan was “displeased” with Gen Hayat’s suggestion, which he thought “did not make any sense.” The statements counter a recent claim by former defence secretary Lt Gen (Retd) Asif Yasin Malik, who said that during the 2019 NSC meeting held after the Balakot strikes, Gen Bajwa had a...