The missing pillar

The missing pillar

By Sheikh Waheed

November 01, 2007

ARTICLE TOOLS Print Email Feedback It is said that there are four pillars of state. If a single pillar collapses the whole structure of state comes crashing down. Media is counted as the fourth pillar. For the past many years efforts have been made to damage it. Media plays a key role in creating awareness amongst the masses and educating people about the truth. Unfortunately besides media all other pillars of the state have been strengthened through legislation and whenever efforts were made to strengthen media hidden hands in one way or other put things in limbo. Years pass by without any productive outcome. Things have changed for the worse as earlier it was just the financial constraints but today a journalist is subject to threats, murder and other such crimes. According to a report of an international institution in the past few years some 25 journalists have been murdered in Pakistan. Cases of many of these brutal murders have been closed by the police. Of the many martyrs in the way of freedom of press is Ismail Malik. Mr Malik served journalism for 31 long years. Against all odds he raised his voice for the cause of truth and justice. Whichever institution he served he served it with thorough professionalism and worked day and night for its development and progress. He rendered his duties diligently and responsibly as a member of the society and senior journalist. On the night of October 31, 2006 unidentified attackers killed the veteran journalist near Super Market in the federal capital. The news of the killing of Ismail Malik spread like wild fire and the journalist community was left in a state of shock and fear. Every journalist that heard about the death of Ismail rushed to Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims), Islamabad. At the hospital all journalists including President Rawalpindi/Islamabad Press Club Mushtaq Minhas and Secretary-General Afzal Butt stood with vacant eyes staring at each other as if inquiring about the future of freedom of press in the country. Ismail Malik was a journalist who didn’t carry any grudge against anyone. Many assembly members belonging to both government and opposition benches expressed their condolences and most reached Pims after hearing the news of the tragic incident. The government members included Mohammad Ali Durrani, Ghulam Sarwar, Tariq Azeem and others. They assured the journalists that the murderers would be nabbed and brought to justice. The government formed a commission comprising SHO and SP Investigations Kohsar Police Station and journalists. Sub-Inspector (Investigations) Kohsar Police Station Mohammad Hussain was handed over the responsibility of investigating the case. Police following ‘normal practice’ took into custody a youth, Mohammad Shafiq, who worked at a junkyard near the place where the body of Ismail Malik was found and started investigations. The so-called investigations didn’t result in any fruitful outcome. The results of the investigations were also not made public. Ismail Malik received severe blows on his head and right eye. The postmortem report revealed that the death occurred due to the blows to the head, which resulted in fracture of the skull bone. Police keeping this in view started searching for the sharp object that was possibly used in the murder. According to police latest scientific techniques had been employed for carrying out the investigations and that the investigations were about to be completed. The police claim that soon the culprits would be brought to justice. The federal government on one hand had directed the police to carry out investigations into the gruesome murder while on the other it had formed a special team of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) under Assistant Director Nasrullah Gondal. The FIA team was directed to collect samples and evidence from the site of the incident. During this period the police also continued with its investigations but in spite of everything the murderers are still at large. Whenever journalists inquired from the police about any development in the investigations the police resorted to mud-slinging at late Ismail Malik. After strong protest by journalists the police withdrew from the accusations that it had hurled at Ismail Malik. They maintained that investigations are underway and final outcome will come soon. The investigation officer of Kohsar Police Station, Sub-Inspector Mohammad Hussain, never bothered to brief mediapersons about any progress in the case. The FIA’s special team carried out a detail investigation about the profile of Ismail Malik and collected samples from the site of the incident. They got the mobile phone data of Ismail Malik for a month’s period. The team investigated one of his office employee and gathered personal record of the deceased journalist, his office employees and servants. But a final outcome of the investigations has yet to be seen. FIA sources state that they have completed investigations into Mr Malik’s murder case and they have submitted their report to police authorities.