Sindhi Press against Censorship during Zia Regime

In this era when there is democracy everywhere in the world, still there are many nations that are striving for liberty and autonomy, one such country is Pakistan that has seen direct martial law for half of its period since creation, while the other half has been controlled by military. After the death of Pakistan’s founding father Mohammad Ali Jinnah and assassination of its first Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan, there has been no way to stop military from getting power and all its accessories. In every martial law the military has engrossed the power, has got the monopoly on decision making while it has established and widen cooperative interests.  As the historical events in common, every martial law in Pakistan has been informed by the last one and has uniqueness in form than in motivation. A past in colonial history, post-colonial failures of politicians, judiciary, media and the public as large to stop violation of democracy and rule of law, all these have motivated Bonapartist trends in the military held up in colonial traditions and intolerant of representative democracy. In Pakistan, General Sikandar Mirza came in power illegally in 1955-1958, General Ayub Khan in 1958-1969, General Yahya Khan in 1969-1971, General Zia-ul-Haq in 1977-1988 and lately General Pervez Musharraf in 1999-2008, all of them controlled manipulated or avoided elections and followed referendum to legitimize their act. (Zahid Akhtar Masood, 2011).

According to Yousaf Muhammad and Rahman H. Bushra, 2014 media plays a very important role in forming the shape, opinions, values, loyalties, interpretation of the world and attitudes in a specific direction. It is unfortunate that till recently media corporations have successfully been hidden in the context of neo-liberalism and the policies concerning people came under state censorship or violated on choice of individuals. On the other media propagates agenda of those who finance it and the freedom of media has become a tool in their hands.

Oppression of difference of opinion and criticism has always been active part in society of Pakistan, journalists and writers had had to strive very hard to express themselves as there have been many laws to punish the journalists and writers. In 1948, by passing Public Safety Act ordinance, this bill was rectified in 1952 by the first ever constitute Assembly of Pakistan. (Kamal Ajmal, 2004).

Despite of the fact that Pakistan came into being in 1947, the regional history i.e. history of its four provinces including Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtoon khwa and Punjab have history of thousands of years, especially Sindh the center of Indus Valley Civilization, has a history of eight thousand years as suggested by a recent research conducted by Calcutta and Deccan Universities.

However, Sindh witnessed dramatic changes in its society after it was conquered by British in 1843, even the gift of press to Sindh was given by its White rulers, but it could not be denied that printing press entered Sindh later than other parts of India, printing press left a positive mark in Sindh, especially in Karachi. It won’t be untrue to say that Karachi after becoming the educational and commercial hub laid foundations of printing press business in the province. Within forty-seven years (1843-1900) Karachi became an advanced city of that time. (Butt R A, Dr., 1988).   

According to Dr. Butt (1995) Napier the ruler of Sind was double minded on the way his very own people behaved after conquering Sindh for the British Crown, especially “The Bombay Times” always stood against him, to counter such a situation in 1845, Napier launched “Kurrachee Advertiser” and by this weekly paper foundations of journalism in Sindh were laid, after a month of it foundation, The Times of London, November 1845 published a news claiming that in “Kurrachee” lithographed newspaper has been established that boldly counters “The Bombay Times”. In 1850, a Parsi native by the name of Ardaseer Rustomjee bought the Paper. During 1853, another newspaper named “The Sindhian” started, this paper became to be the main reason behind the fall of “Kurrachee Advertiser” as it was owned by a native and other was owned by Europeans. It was the Parsi community that ruled over the newspaper industry in Sindh, and then came the Muslims followed by Hindus. In 1884, Sindh Sudhar edited by Hiranand Shukiram Advani happens to be the earliest newspaper in the native language. (Dr. Butt, 1988). Another Sindhi newspaper named Moin-ul-Islam was launched by the Mirza family that already owned Persian newspapers Mofurrah ul-Koloob and Matlay Khurshid. Moin-ul-Islam was a weekly newspaper and came out on Friday. (ibid, P: 53). Muavin Mujmay Muhammadi, better known as Mauvin was launched in early 1886, by central Muhammadan Association (ibid, P: 54). In 1891, "Sukhri", a weekly Sindhi paper from Karachi appeared, while in 1895 Khairkah-i-Sind, also known as Khairkah started and laid strong foundations of journalism in Sindh and Sindhi language. (ibid, P: 55).   

During 1890, Sadhu Heernand and Diyaram Gadumal started a magazine named Saraswati. Shamsuddin Bulbul started Weekly Aftab under his editorship in 1895, while in the same year weeklies Sindhi were published from Sukkur, Khairkhwa and Larkana. In 1896, Weekly Parbhat was published under the editorship of Laikhraj Tilokchand, In 1920, Al-Waheed started to be published, having a large circulation throughout Sindh and played a vital role for rights of Muslims, Sheikh Abdul Majeed Sindhi was its editor and Abdullah Haroon the financer. (Ahmed Bilal Gulmina, Sindhi Ali Madad, Haider Zulfiqar, Saleem Khurram and Khan Hamza, 2011).   

Post Partition Sindhi journalism

After Pakistan came into being in 1947, Sindhi press got a stumbling blow as Hindu community migrated from Sindh to India, in 1947; only three Sindhi newspapers including Al-Waheed, Qurbani and Hilal-e-Pakistan were in print. In 1948, Daily Mujahid started publishing from Karachi. In 1952, Ayub Khuro started Nawa-e-Sindh and its editor was Abdul Ghafoor Saytai was its editor; however, this newspaper only lasted for few months. In April 1953, Sain G M Sayed started Nayi Sindh from Karachi and its editor was Subhu Gayaanchandani, Daily Mehran owned by Pir Pagara started in 1955 and in 1958 it was shifted to Hyderabad, while in the very same year Qazi Muhammad Akhbar and Qazi Abdul Majeed started to publish Daily Ibrat from Hyderabad, Daily Aftab was started in 1974 at Hyderabad and its editor was Sheikh Ali Muhammad, Sindh News started from 1976 in Hyderabad and it was started by Qazi Abdul Majeed, In 1991, Qazi Aslam Akhbar started Daily Kawish from Hyderabad, having sister publication of Daily Koshish and Daily Shaam. While Daily Awami Awaz, Daily Halchul, Tameer-e-Sindh, Barsaat, Sindhu, Sobh, Jeejal and others started publishing, many of these newspapers are still in publishing while some have been closed. (Ahmed Bilal Gulmina, Sindhi Ali Madad, Haider Zulfiqar, Saleem Khurram and Khan Hamza, 2011).   

Freedom of Press

The freedom of press means to have complete independence to express opinions through different mediums including print, electronic or digital media without the interference of the state. In 1948 United Nations had a universal declaration called Universal Declaration of Human Rights stating that “every individual has the right of freedom of expression and opinion and it includes freedom to have opinion without any interference and express views through any form of media without limitations of boundaries.  Sweden happens to be the first country to adopt freedom of press in 1700s. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_the_press).

Censorship on Press in Pakistan:

By censorship it is meant to officially oppress and suppress any action that could possibly put at risk the order of the state. In historic perspective censorship has been used to control and monitor public morals, public awareness and usually to shut off the opposition, sabotaging the information through censorship is the first step of any government as the press play a very vital role in any kind of conflict. (Abbasi Saeed Irum & Al-Sharqi Laila, 2015)

The very first attack on freedom of press in Pakistan could be dated back in 1948, when three periodicals belonging to PPL were banned by the than Muslim League Government of Punjab, while the Sindh government in 1949 stopped the circulation of Daily Dawn claiming that the paper had lodged fierce attack on certain ministry.

In 1952, the editors and journalists of Dhaka based newspaper Pakistan Observer were detained under the Public Safety Act; the main reason behind this was an editorial published criticizing the Prime Minister. In the very same year the Official Secrets Act was imposed that clearly was continuation of colonial legacy by the government to suppress the press. According to a study of the official reports 31 newspapers were banned merely in seven years of the creation of Pakistan (1947-1953) only in the province of Punjab.

The days for press became even worse when in 1958; General Ayub Khan announced the military rule over the country, the most important feature of this martial law was that the press could not criticize the military rule in the country and this became the standard operative procedure against press during the martial laws that followed Ayub’s.

The main objective of this was to tighten media to not to publish anything against the military rule and the “Press Advice System” was introduced; this was also the continuation of the colonial era. Press Advisory Boards (later known as committees or councils) were formed having joint membership of editors and government officials, the duty of such boards was to ensure the government that the press would not publish anything that might go against the policies of the government, or such news stories that could be harmful for national security and integrity of the country. Finally the press laws and institutionalization of “Press Advice System” left no space for objective and investigative journalism and journalists became just a messenger of government. Another tool that governments used in Pakistan was controlling advertisement, whenever some section of press published anything against the government or criticized its policies, the government in reaction immediately used to stop its advertisement. (Mezzera Marco & Sail Safdar, 2010)  

Press under Zia Regime (1977-1988

On 20 December 1971, after fall of Dhaka, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto became the Civilian Martial Law Administrator; Bhutto becoming a martial law administrator was set by the army, though he dismissed generals who were considered very important during the days of Yahya. (Ali Tariq, 1983).  Bhutto and his party had very few choices, yet Bhutto regime tried for a small period of time to defy the objective realities of the economic system, still Bhutto was the most popular leader. (ibid, P: 101-102). On July 5 1977, General Zia ul-Haq dismissed Bhutto's government and imposed martial law, in his speech to the nation on the eve of July 5 1977, Zia claimed that the political leadership failed to take country out from chaos; it is highest form of sin for armed forces to sit silently as spectator. There is no detail of what went inside the army high ranks, but no one could deny that generals had number of contingency plans at their disposal and most of them were brought up with direct involvement of USA with armed forces of Pakistan and one such plan was "Operation Wheel Jam". (ibid, P: 133-135).

From 1977 to 1979, the generals carried on with the rhetoric of Zia's promise to conduct elections, but then Zia told a chaotic nation that he heard a voice in his dream (presumed as voice of Almighty) suggesting that elections were un-Islamic. Of course there was no holy dream, it was his six corps commanders including Generals Chishti, Iqbal, Jehanzeb, Sarwar Khan, Ghulam Hassan and Ghulam Mohammad who told him that elections were not in favor of the country thus in November 1979, army postponed elections for indefinite period of time. (ibid, P: 136-137).

In 1979, Bhutto was hanged at Rawalpindi; Zia consolidated his status in the country by using brutal tactics and a selective usage of Islamic injunctions, the basis of Zia’s strong hold on the country were muzzling the press and political, he with a unilateral amendment in the 1973 constitution of forming party-less assemblies dented the democracy in the country. (Malik H. Iftikhar, Dr., 2002).  During this martial law the journalists suffered the most and they were degraded in the public, in 1988, a new law called Registration of Printing Press and Publications Ordinance was implemented according to which a district magistrate was to issue clearance to the person trying to establish press, this law is implemented even today. (Dass Bheeman, 2009).

Sindhi Press against Censorship during Zia Regime:

According to Sohail Sangi (a senior Sindhi journalist and victim of Zia regime) Sindhi journalists have suffered a lot as compared to journalists of other languages in Pakistan, during the Zia regime when there was censorship everywhere yet the English and Urdu dailies were given some space to publish some items but Sindhi press was not given that space, an Information Officer (IO) was appointed at every newspaper office, whose job was to monitor the entire newspaper before going into publication, he used to dictate what to publish and what not to publish, he would mark news items that should not be gone in public and those news items were taken out, due to lack of time journalists were unable to fill the space and left out the blank space, this later on became the sign that some news was published but due to censorship it has been taken out, sometimes half page of a daily was printed blank. Once he translated an item into Sindhi already published in English press and gave the courtesy, yet he was called by the local army commander for interrogation why he had published such a news story. He told the commander that it has already been published, in reply he was told yes but the readers of English and Urdu press won’t come out on streets but Sindhi readers would come out. Sindhi journalists played an active part against the censorship during Zia regime, they were wiped and tortured for doing journalism, and two Sindhi journalists of Hyderabad Ghani Dars and Zahid Samo went to Lahore and gave their arrest in solidarity with other journalists who were arrested. (Butt Kaleem, 2017). When the Masawat Newspaper was banned during Zia regime Sindhi journalists started a movement against it, the journalists were lashed and jailed. Sindhi journalists like Ghani Dars, Zahid Samo, Irshad Chana, Shamsheer-ul-Hyderi, Khair Mohammad Khokhar, and others played an active part in the movement against censorship during Zia regime. (Mari Mansoor, 2017).  

According to senior journalist and Vice President of Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) Mr. Khalid Khokhar, Sindhi press was very vibrant during Zia regime they always retaliated against the oppression and suppression, Sindhi journalists always stood for truth no matter what hardships they faced. For Example Sindhi famous poet and journalist Shamsheer-ul-Hyderi used to write two columns “Full Trough” and “The Other Opinion” and between the lines he used to criticize policies of General Zia in Daily Mehran, since the paper belonged to Pir Pagara, Hyderi was told to stop writing the columns, when he didn’t stop he was sacked from the paper. In those days there were limited Sindhi newspapers including Daily Ibrat, Daily Mehran, Daily Hilal-e-Pakistan, Daily Aftab and Daily Barsaat, but all these papers were very vigilant and played a vital role especially during Movement for Restoration of Democracy (MRD) against General Zia, despite of all the censorship these newspapers were able to give some sort of coverage to MRD. (Butt Kaleem, 2017).

  Findings:

From this study it came to the knowledge that Zia regime is considered to be the hardest time for journalists as truth was being oppressed and suppressed. Zia tried to hide every oppression under the veil of Islam.

It was the press that suffered the most during Zia regime the journalists were lashed and tortured and put behind the bars.

Sindhi press was most affected during Zia regime, even press of other languages was allowed to publish something, but Sindhi press was not even allowed to publish that.

Information Officers (IO) were appointed in every newspaper office whose duty was to censor anti-government news, news items were removed from papers, and blank space was left alone due to lack of time that became the sign to know certain news item has been censored.

Sindhi journalists started a movement against such oppression of the dictator and journalists like Ghani Dars and Zahid Samo gave their arrest at Lahore in solidarity with the journalistic community.

Sindhi journalists like Sohail Sangi, Irshad Chana and others were jailed and lashed for performing their journalistic duties.

Shamsheer-ul-Hyderi famous poet and journalist, who was editor of Daily Mehran was sacked from his job for writing columns against Zia policies.

Many Sindhi newspapers like Daily Masawat were banned.

During this period an ordinance known as Registration of Printing Press and Publications Ordinance was introduced, under this the district magistrate was authorized to give declaration to people who wanted to install press, no one was allowed to take out anything in print without the approval of district magistrate, this ordinance is still intact today.

Conclusion:

The Zia Regime from 1977-1988 is considered to be the deadliest period in the history of Pakistan, and the dictator was hiding his evilness under the curtain of Islam. Brutal punishments were given to political and social opponents of Zia; people were lashed and jailed just raising their voice against him.  It was the press that suffered the most journalists were jailed and lashed, but carried on to play their role to bring forth the truth no matter how the truth was being oppressed. The press was total under the control of state. IOs were appointed to censor news items that were considered to be inappropriate, newspapers were banned. Among others Sindhi journalists played very vital role against the censorship of Zia, they started a movement, gave arrests, newspapers were banned, journalists faced financial crisis but kept on telling the people truth.

References:

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