The Senate on Monday unanimously passed a resolution condemning the attack on senior journalist Hamid Mir in Karachi while journalists briefly boycotted the session to register their protest.
After the media walked out, in an unprecedented move the leader of the House Raja Zafarul Haq and leader of the Opposition Aitzaz Ahsan met journalists to placate them and decided to form a five- member committee to look into the grievances of the media and suggest some measures. Later the Senate suspended all business in solidarity with Mr. Mir to discuss the attack on him but not before members squabbled that the five- member committee was not representative and did not have a woman. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the Jamiat Ulema e Islam (Fazl) Senators staged a walkout in protest.
Speaking on the attack, Mr. Ahsan said it had shaken Pakistan’s society and polity and the impunity with which the attackers came and decamped has shaken the power structures and the established order like no other event before. He praised Mr. Mir’s journalism of courage and said there was no justification for this attack. No one was high enough to be exempt from appearing before the judicial commission and some sections of the media had blamed the ISI which has had a checkered past, he pointed out. “Let us not rush to form a judgment and we cannot blame the head of an institution of which I have been a severest critic,” he said, adding that the commission should complete its inquiry and till then everyone should show some restraint and balance.
Meanwhile the chief justice of Pakistan approved the names of three Supreme Court judges for the judicial commission to probe the attack on Mr Mir– Justices Anwar Zaheer Jamali, Ejaz Afzal and Iqbal Hameedur Rahman. Prime Minister Muhammed Nawaz Sharif, who had announced a judicial commission on Sunday, visited Hamid Mir, who is recuperating at a hospital in Karachi. Speaking to the media, Mr. Sharif said that an investigation into the attack was underway and no stone would be left unturned to find the guilty.
Meanwhile in a statement, the United States condemned the vicious attack on television journalist Hamid Mir, the latest in a series of worrisome attacks on journalists in Pakistan. Freedom of the press, including ensuring that journalists can safely carry out their vital mission, is of paramount importance to freedom of expression and to the healthy functioning of any democracy. Attacks like these should be a wake-up call to all who value democracy in Pakistan, the statement said, urging the government to bring all those responsible for these attacks on the media to justice.