Karachi: A senior reporter associated with a leading private television news channel has been missing in Karachi since Friday evening.
Ali Imran Syed is associated with Geo News channel, which is a part of the biggest media organization in Pakistan. He was recently credited with obtaining the surveillance cameras’ footage of a posh hotel of Karachi showing arrest of leader of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), Captain (retd) Mohammad Safdar, from a hotel room early morning on October 19.
Captain Safdar had been staying in the hotel room with his wife Maryam Nawaz, daughter of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, after attending the public meeting of alliance of Opposition political parties in the country, the Pakistan Democratic Movement. Safdar was arrested by police for resorting to political sloganeering at the Mausoleum of Founder of the Nation, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, a day earlier that is against the decorum of the mausoleum as defined in the law.
Syed went missing when he went to a bakery nearby his home in Gulistan-e-Jauhar area around 8pm. The police has lodged a criminal case and started investigating the incident.
All leading associations representing journalists in Pakistan have unanimously condemned the incident and demanded top authorities to ensure his earliest recovery without any harm.
The representatives of the journalists are of the view that such frequent incidents of missing, kidnapping, and murder of journalists gives impression that the rule of law has been compromised in the country owing to weak governance.
Immediate recovery
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah telephoned Inspector General of Sindh Police, Mushtaq Ahmed Mehar, and directed him to ensure immediate recovery of Syed.
The CM asked the Sindh Police chief to update him about the investigation into the case of missing journalist every hour.
Sindh CM also phoned chief of Geo News channel, Azhar Abbas, and assured him that Ali Imran would soon be recovered.
In his statement, Chairman of Pakistan Peoples Party, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, expressed concern that the Geo News reporter had gone missing in Karachi.
He said that the incident tantamount to attacking the constitutional right of freedom of expression as such attempts should to come to an end.
He said that a negative image of the country had emerged for rest of the world owing to such incidents against media persons.
He said that media had been facing worst form of suppression during the regime of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
