Relations between The Friday Times (tft) and the Nawaz Sharif government went from bad to worse in '98. tft has never minced its words. And Sharif can't stomach criticism. But matters came to a head in April this year when tft approved Benazir Bhutto's conviction for corruption and expressed the hope that Sharif too would be held accountable one day. This editorial was followed by another in which the Sharif family and senator Saif ur Rahman (who heads the notorious Accountability Bureau) were lambasted for setting ruinous legal and financial precedents by refusing to pay back their accumulated loan defaults on the plea that 'interest was un-Islamic'. I don't think these comments endeared me to the prime minister or the senator, both of whom are known for their vindictiveness.
Then came the proverbial straw which broke the camel's back. A bbc team investigating allegations of money-laundering by the Sharifs arrived and set about interviewing many, including me. Soon, the Intelligence Bureau had persuaded Sharif that 'a dark plot by Najam Sethi, in cahoots with the bbc, was afoot to discredit, undermine and overthrow' the government. Or so said senator Saif when he phoned my wife asking for my whereabouts on April 30, the very day I was in New Delhi delivering the Kewal Singh Memorial Lecture at the India International Centre. When I returned to Lahore on May 3, my wife expressed fears that 'they' had determined to 'teach Sethi a lesson'.
The rest, as they say, is history. Out-of-context extracts from my speech in Delhi ('enemy country') were given to paid hacks and government lackeys who proceeded to paint me in the government-controlled electronic and print media as an 'anti-Pakistan raw agent'. When the press hysteria ripened a week later, I was arrested by the police and handed over to the isi. The world was then informed that issues related to sedition rather than press freedom were involved in my case, that the army rather than the civilian government intended to act against me. When the Indian press protested my detention, I was called 'a darling of the enemy'. When Western governments and human rights organisations spoke up for me, I was labelled a 'cia agent'.
The good news is that shortly after my abduction, a Pakistan Army spokesman said the army had nothing to do with my case. Although the isi interrogated me, it did not mistreat me. Eventually, it declined to press charges against me. The Supreme Court refused to give any weight to the government's arguments and insisted upon giving me justice. The independent press at home and abroad consistently stuck by me. The political opposition in Pakistan joined ranks to defend me and condemned the government. The international community relentlessly castigated the Sharif government for infringing upon human rights in general and my rights in particular. In the end, most Pakistanis cast their lot with me instead of my misguided detractors. By making my case a cause celebre all over the free world, the Sharif government has unwittingly strengthened the cause of press freedom and human rights in Pakistan.
But this unfortunate saga is not yet over. When I arrived back in Lahore on June 4, I was greeted with two dozen trumped-up 'notices' from the income tax department issued a couple of days earlier. These relate to my business and family accounts of the last 10 years, many of which were fully settled a long time ago. My house and that of my mother have been illegally 'attached', my wife's bank accounts have been illegally seized and frantic efforts are afoot to cripple tft financially and force it to close down. No further proof of the government's mala fide intentions should now be required by those who were led into believing that it was the Delhi speech rather than the editorials in tft which were, and remain, at the root of my ordeal.
This has been a most unfortunate episode. I hope that wiser council will prevail in Islamabad in the future. For my part, I will continue to speak the truth.
(The author is editor of 'The Friday Times', a Lahore-based weekly)
