Ammad Yousaf arrest: Journalists threaten countrywide protest
KARACHI: Journalist organizations across the country have strongly condemned the arrest of ARY News head Ammad Yousaf and demanded his immediate release.
According to details, journalists’ bodies and press clubs across the country condemned the arrest of ARY News Head of News Ammad Yousaf and termed it as an act of victimization.
Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) in its statement said that the government should come to its senses, PFUJ leader Lala Asad Pathan said that the government’s action is very shameful, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif should take immediate action into the matter.
PFUJ Dastoor Secretary General AH Khanzada said that if Ammad Yousaf is not released immediately, journalists will call for a nationwide protest.
Secretary Karachi Press Club Rizwan Bhatti said that restrictions on freedom of expression will not be tolerated in any way, Lahore Press Club has also demanded the immediate release of ARY News head.
Ammad Yousaf’s arrest
ARY’s Head of News Ammad Yousaf was picked up without a warrant from his residence located in Karachi’s DHA.
Police officers along with plain-clothed persons forcibly entered the house of Ammad Yousaf. The raiding team diverted the CCTV cameras of Yousaf’s house, and jumped into the house from the top of the main entrance.
The raiding team also took away the licensed weapons and the DVR of the CCTV cameras installed in the house.
Case against CEO ARY Digital Network Salman Iqbal
President and CEO ARY Digital Network Mr. Salman Iqbal, Anchorpersons, Arshad Sharif and Khawar Ghuman have been booked under sedition charges.
The FIR has been registered at Karachi’s Memon Goth police station on the complaint of SHO. It has been learnt by ARY News that the First Information Report (FIR) against President and CEO ARY Digital Network, Salman Iqbal, Arshad Sharif, Khawar Ghuman, Adeel Raja was registered just an hour before the arrest of ARY News head Ammad Yousaf.
The FIR has been registered under sections 120،124A،131،153A in which sedition and charges of plotting alleged conspiracy have been included.
