Journalists terms his arrest as an attack on freedom of press in Pakistan.
LAHORE: (UrduPoint/Pakistan Point News-March 12th, 2020) National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Thursday took owner of Geo and Jang media group Mir Shakil-ur Rehman into custody over charges of getting favor on 54 plots in Johar Town area.
The NAB sources said that Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman appeared before the officials to respond questions about the charges. They said Mr. Rehman, however, could not answer the questions after which he was taken into custody.
The journalists’ bodies are terming his arrest as an attack on freedom of press. Taking to Twitter, Hamid Mir wrote: “ NAB Lahore arrested Chief Editor of Jang Group Mir Shakeel ur Rehman in Lahore it’s not a secret that why NAB arrested him ARY accusing that Nawaz Sharif gave favour to him in 1986 but forgot what Nawaz Sharif did against him in 1998@pressfreedom,”.
Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman appeared before the anti-graft body to respond the questions regarding plots under question.
According to The News International, Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman said that similar accusations were levelled against him in the past as well but were proven to be false.
It is important to note that a British court had imposed a fine on a private channel, which had alleged that Geo News was spreading anarchy in Pakistan and was being paid to promote foreign agenda.
The same private channel had accused Jang Group of Newspapers CEO and Editor-in-Chief Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman of being a traitor to and an enemy of the country.
However, the channel later admitted that it had no proof to support its allegations following which the British court had imposed a fine on it. Owing to the non-payment of the fine, the channel was forced to shut down its operations in the United Kingdom.
Referring to this case, Rehman highlighted that similar fake accusations in the past had led a British court to impose a fine worth Rs600-650 million on a tv channel.
Prime Minister Imran Khan many times said that he would teach lesson to Geo and Jang owner Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman while the government banned ads of all news outlets owned by Mr. Rehman.
