ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Journalist Community has strongly condemned the arrest of senior journalist Hamid Ullah Wazir by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
Hamid Ullah Wazir was among the detainees when a heavy contingent of Islamabad Police raided the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Central Secretariat on Monday, and arrested the Party’s Information Secretary Raoof Hasan and others over the suspicion of running an anti-state propaganda.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the Rawalpindi Islamabad Union of Journalists (RIUJ) President Tariq Ali Virk, Acting General Secretary Gulzar Khan, Finance Secretary Nadeem Chaudhry and other officials denounced in strongest terms the arrest of senior journalist Hamid Ullah Wazir.
They said that Hamid Ullah is an active journalist who has worked in major journalistic institutions of the Country.
The RUIJ leadership said that unjustified actions against journalists are absolute cruelty and abuse which we will not accept at any cost.
“We will raise our voices against this cruelty and injustice at all levels,” they said.
They further said that in the current economic crisis, working journalists are already suffering immensely, and the government is adding to their problems by arresting journalists without any warrant.
The RIUJ leadership demanded Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi to immediately release Hamid Ullah Wazir; otherwise a massive protest would be staged.
