QUETTA: Journalists masking the meeting session on Monday boycotted the proceedings to protest towards the lockdown of Quetta Press Membership (QPC) and the entry of police into the premises on Saturday to cease a seminar of the Baloch Yakjahti Committee (BYC).
The choice to boycott was made in a joint assembly of the manager committees of QPC and the Balochistan Union of Journalists (BUJ).
Numerous journalists, led by BUJ president Khalil Ahmed and QPC president Abdul Khaliq Rind, walked out of the press gallery quickly after the meeting session began and gathered in entrance of the corridor.
They had been carrying placards and banners inscribed with their calls for and chanted slogans towards the police and native administration for locking down the press membership.
The BUJ and QPC leaders, whereas talking on the event, strongly condemned the native administration’s motion on the QPC and termed it a violation of the liberty of expression and press freedom, and a gross violation of Article 19.
In the meantime, a delegation of meeting members, together with Finance Minister Mir Shoaib Nosherwani, Mir Zahoor Ahmed Buledi, Rehmat Baloch and Mir Zabit Reki, met the protesting journalists and expressed solidarity with them, supporting their calls for.
Later, a delegation from QPC and BUJ met Chief Minister Sarfarz Bugti and offered him with the calls for. The CM assured the delegation that the incident could be investigated.
Printed in Daybreak, Could twenty first, 2024