His Excellency Benazir Bhutto
Prime Minster of Pakistan
Office of the Prime Minister
Islamabad
Islamic Republic of Pakistan

Vienna, 15 September1995

Your Excellency,

The International Press Institute (IPI), a global network of editors and media executives from newspapers, magazines, broadcasting organisations and news agencies in 85 countries, is most concerned about the recent dismissal and forced retirement of employees of Pakistan’s official news agency, Associate Press of Pakistan (APP):

We are informed that in August office-bearers of the APP employees union and other employees were dismissed, forcibly retired or transferred to distant locations by the newly-appointed Director-General, Azhar Sohail. The APP employees unions had recently exposed alleged financial and other irregularities in the running of the news agency. Despite promises by the authorities that the orders of dismissal and forced retirement would be withdrawn, we understand that the employees in question have not been reinstated in their posts.

IPI would like to draw attention to the fact that Pakistan’s constitution guarantees the right to freedom of association and that Pakistan is a signatory to International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions forbidding victimization for union activities. We therefore urge Your Excellency to ensure that the dismissed employees are reinstated and that they are allowed to exercise their profession without further political interference. We further urge that an immediate and thorough investigation into alleged irregularities at the APP is carried out.

We thank you for your attention.

Yours sincerely,

Johann P. Fritz
Director