Azad Kashmir Newspapers Society slams AJK govt for registering FIR against Daily Jammu Kashmir

The Azad Kashmir Newspapers Society (AKNS) on Tuesday condemned registration of an FIR against Daily Jammu Kashmir on the orders of Azad Kashmir government and demanded that the government should withdraw this FIR within three days.

If the Azad Kashmir government does not withdraw this FIR within three days, AKNS decided at its consultative meeting that it would announce the future course of action. AKNS President Chaudhry Amjad presided over the consultative meeting, which was attended by AKNS former president Zahid Tabassum, Sardar Hameed, Ijaz Khan, Nisar Kiani, Dilawar Bukhari, Haroon-ur-Rasheed, Sardar Javed Iqbal, Javed Chaudhry, Sajjad Shah and Nisar Saim.

Shafqat Zia, Masood Hanif and Zahid Bashir from Rawalakot, Sherbaz, Munir Chaudhry, Khalid Chaudhry, Ramzan Chughtai and Mumtaz Khaksar from Mirpur, General Secretary Raja Amjad and former general secretary Zaheer Jagwal from Muzaffarabad address the meeting over the phone.

Those in attendance termed registration of an FIR against Daily Jammu Kashmir in violation of fundamental principles of the press freedom and against democratic norms. AKNS expressed solidarity with the newspaper and vowed to support it on every front, legal and organizational. AKNS said that any complaint against a newspaper or journalist should be debated at legal forums instead of taking criminal action against them. 

They said that AKNS had always been part of the government’s consultative process on different issues, but this time the government took an extreme measure without consulting AKNS. They demanded that the government must take notice of this issue and withdraw the FIR. AKNS also formed a committee for a dialogue with the government. The committee consists of Sardar Zahid Tabassum, Syed Afaq Shah, Sardar Zulfiqar, Javed Chaudhry, Sherbaz, Munir Chaudhry, Khalid Chaudhry and Nisar Kiani.