Pak Journalist Who Reported Military-Govt.Rift Banned From Leaving Country
ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani journalist who reported on friction between the military and the government has been told that he cannot leave the country.
Cyril Almeida, an assistant editor with Dawn newspaper, said on Twitter that he had been put on the “Exit Control List”, days after his front-page story that said the civilian government was concerned that the military’s support for terrorist groups was leaving the country internationally isolated.
Reacting to the move, Mr Almeida said:The story about the confrontation between Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the country’s spy chief, citing unnamed sources, triggered a huge controversy when it was published on Thursday. The Pakistan government had vehemently rejected the report and termed it as “speculative”.
Firmly backing the story and the reporter in a statement today, Dawn said, “The elected government and state institutions should refrain from targeting the messenger, and scape-goating the country’s most respected newspaper in a malicious campaign.”
Mr Sharif yesterday ordered authorities to take “stern action” against those responsible for publishing the “fabricated” story.The move came as Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif met Mr Sharif along with Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan, Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Rizwan Akhtar.
According to an official statement, the Dawn story was discussed along with national security issues during the meeting.”The participants were unanimous that the published story was clearly violative of universally acknowledged principles of reporting on national security issues and has risked the vital state interests through inclusion of inaccurate and misleading contents which had no relevance to actual discussion and facts,” it said.
The report followed India’s efforts at diplomatically isolating Pakistan following the terror attack by Pakistani terrorists on an Army base in Jammu and Kashmir’s Uri last month that left 19 soldiers dead.
According to the Dawn report, the ISI chief was told by the government that Pakistan could only avoid international isolation if it took action against Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the Haqqani network.
