Press Statement

PFUJ stage Countrywide protest against Jan Mehar murder impunity

12 May, 2024

Lahore: Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) has staged country wide protests on Saturday against impunity of Jan Muhammad Mehar’s nine months old murder and demanded the Government of Sindh Province to arrest the nominated culprits and punish them after speedy trials.

Jan Muhammad Mehar was murdered nine month ago and Sindh Police has been making promises to arrest the killers but no one has been arrested despite repeated appeals to Sindh Government. The PFUJ President GM Jamali and Secretary General Rana Muhammad Azeem had given a call for countrywide protests to highlight the issue at highest level. Responding to the PFUJ protest call, PFUJ’s affiliated regional unions in Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi Islamabad, Hyderabd, Sakhar, Khairpur, Nawabshah, Ghotki, Bahawalnagar, Chishtian, Okara Multan and other cities stages protests holding banners and play cards with slogan to arrest culprits involved in Jan Muhammad Mehar’s murder.

President GM Jamali, Secretary General Rana Muhammad Azeem and other leaders while specking said that journalists in Pakistan were working in horrible conditions of insecurity both in jobs and physical while number of working journalists and lost their lives and hundreds had to face intimidation and arrests in the line of their duties throughout the country but most of the incidents were facing a state of impunity without any legal remedy. The PFUJ has been staging protests time and again but all in vain which is very alarming. They again demanded the government to take action and arrest the killers of Jan Muhammad Mehar and others and give justice to their heirs and give them financial compensation.

The PFUJ leadership said,”We have pointed out that the killers of Jan Muhammad Mehar were residing in Kachha area near Sakhar but the police failed to arrest them. Killers of other journalists are also free to move around but the law enforcement agencies were not able to arrest them which is a serious issue. We again demand the arrest of the killers and will be forced to stage a protest in front of CM Sindh house and national Parliament if they are not arrested,”