PAKISTAN: A Newspaper Terminates its Editor After Threats from Fundamentalists

Salem-News.com Eye on the World report.

The editor is with the newspaper, Takmeel-e-Pakistan. His family has been threatened, police haven't helped.

(HONG KONG) - Threats have been leveled toward an editor with the Lahore based daily newspaper, Takmeel-e-Pakistan, by Muslim fundamentalists, and the Tahafuz-e-Namoos-e-Rislat Mahaz (TNRM), which have directly affected this journalist's life. He suffered a heart attack and now lives in fear and insecurity; in fact he is bedridden, and his wife and children are also living with this fear. Officials were well aware of the fact that Muslim fundamentalists were agitated, but refused to provide protection to the newspaper.

Our goal with Eye on the World is to illustrate and highlight politically oriented problems and tragedies that traditional media channels don't have time or interest in covering.

The world has its own set of laws that were agreed upon by the ruling nations in 1948, and many people are not aware of this simple fact. At the root of the concept of world citizenry itself, is the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, an overriding and supreme law that ensures many essential human rights that governments today fail to observe. Also central to any hope of human success, is the understanding of the human hierarchy of needs, as defined by Abraham Maslow- more information on this at the conclusion of this entry. We must use the Internet as a tool of justice at every junction, and we need to assist all human beings, everywhere, and not allow cultural, racial or religious preferences as determiners.

In his letter, Mr. William Gomes asks Mr. Asif Ali Zardari, the President of Pakistan in Islamabad, to hold an inquiry over the illegal actions of Muslim fundamentalists and TNRM and prosecute them for taking the law in to their hands. Mr. Gomes also asks Pakistan's President to provide full protection to the editor and his family and also his employment. Finally, action should be taken to ensure that Lahore police are not providing protection to the illegal activities of the Muslim fundamentalists.

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March 29, 2012 Mr. Asif Ali Zardari President of Pakistan President’s Secretariat Islamabad PAKISTAN Tel: +92 51 9204801-9214171 Fax +92 51 9207458 Email: publicmail@president.gov.pk Re: PAKISTAN: A newspaper terminates its editor after threats from fundamentalists Dear President of Pakistan, Name of victim: Mr. Zameer Aafaqi, editor, editorial and magazine editor of Daily Takmeel-e-Pakistan, Lahore, Punjab province Alleged perpetrators: 1. Mr. Mufti Mukhtar Ahmad Naeemi Qadri, spokeperson,Tahafuz-e-Namoos-e-Rislat Mahaz (TNRM) 2. Tahafuz-e-Namoos-e-Rislat Mahaz (TNRM), Jamia Naeema, Garhi Shahi, Lahore, Punjab province 3. Mr. Syed Asif Hashmi, publisher and chief editor, Daily Takmeel-e-Pakistan, Lahore, Punjab province Date of incident: February 5, 2012 Place of incident: Lahore, Punjab province I am writing to voice my deep concern regarding the illegal retrenchment of an editor of the Lahore based daily newspaper, Takmeel-e-Pakistan, on the threats and vandalism of Muslim fundamentalists and the Tahafuz-e-Namoos-e-Rislat Mahaz (TNRM), which have directly affected his life. He suffered a heart attack and now lives in fear and insecurity. The administration was well aware of the agitation of Muslim fundamentalists but refused to provide protection to the newspaper. I have learned that Mr. Zameer Aafaqi, the editor of the editorial page and magazine editor of daily Takmeel-ePakistan, which is published simultaneously from three different cities of Pakistan, had written an editorial note on the Eid Milad-un-Nabi (the birthday of the last prophet of Islam-PBUH) and paid tribute to him (PUBH) in the daily editorial on February 5, 2012. The editorial note on the Eid Mila-un-Nabi was written after two other editorial notes; one was on the poor performance of the government in not solving the issues of the people and the second one was on banned religious organizations and their open activities. This act infuriated a group of Muslim fundamentalists organization; Tahafuz-e-Namoos-e-Rislat Mahaz (TNRM). Further information revealed that on February 6, the TNRM declared through a press release that by putting the editorial note on prophet Muhammad (PBUH) on third number in the editorial, the newspaper had committed blasphemy and announced that on the February 10, the Friday, the TNRM will observe a ‘protest day’ throughout the country against the act of Blasphemy of the newspaper. In the press release it is also said that the TNRM has consulted some religious leaders inside and outside the Pakistan who have given their consent to observe a protest day. It was also announced that a case of blasphemy would be filed against the newspaper. Please find the copy of the press release of TNRM here. On the next day, the publisher (owner) of the newspaper succumbed before the TNRM, apologized and issued a clarification in which it stated that the newspaper will take action against the responsible persons. On the same day Mr. Aafaqi was told that he has been retrenched from the job and he was not allowed to come to the office or use the name of newspaper. Aafaqi asked about the illegal way of retrenchment but he was told that the newspaper cannot face the actions from Muslim extremist groups and it would be better for him to keep himself quiet and not challenge their action, otherwise it would be harmful for him, the newspaper and the staff. I can understand that Mr. Aafaqi was shocked at finding himself out on the street. In the coming days he was worried about possible attacks on his life and was searching for a job. On February 22 he suffered a heart attack and was admitted to a hospital where he remained for many days incurring a huge financial burden. It is appalling that the administration of Lahore, capital of Punjab province, and the police were very well aware of the threats from the TNRM and protest day against the newspaper but they ignored the calls from the fundamentalists. The administration knows that the Punjab provincial government has been providing patronage to the Muslim fundamentalists, sectarian organizations and banned militant groups. Mr. Zameer Aafaqi is now bedridden, cannot leave his house for fear of assault or worse and his children also remain in distress and fear because of the threats. Therefore I urge you to hold inquiry in to the illegal actions of Muslim fundamentalists and TNRM and prosecute them for taking the law in to their hands. Please provide full protection to the editor and his family and also employment. I also urge that the action against Lahore police be taken who provide protection to the illegal activities of the Muslim fundamentalists. Yours sincerely, William Nicholas Gomes William’s Desk www.williamgomes.org

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Maslow's hierarchy of needs

As children we are educated in right and wrong, we are told how to conduct ourselves; we learn both expectations and limitations, and from that point we go forth with these tools, and our individual personalities, and fail or succeed accordingly.

In school we quickly understand that without paper, there is no place to write. Once we have paper, a pen or pencil is required to move to the next point. There is a great analogy that exists between this simple concept of paper and pen, and what we know today as Maslow's hierarchy of needs- the theory in psychology proposed in Abraham Maslow's 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation.

He demonstrated how without the correct necessities, a person can do little good for themselves, and has none to offer for others. However when people are housed and have clothing, heat, food, health and security, anything is possible. However if just one of these dynamics is removed from the mix, the chance for success can be adversely affected.

Wikipedia describes Maslow's hierarchy of needs as a pyramid consisting of five levels:

The lowest level is associated with physiological needs, while the uppermost level is associated with self-actualization needs, particularly those related to identity and purpose.

The higher needs in this hierarchy only come into focus when the lower needs in the pyramid are met. Once an individual has moved upwards to the next level, needs in the lower level will no longer be prioritized. If a lower set of needs is no longer be met, the individual will temporarily re-prioritize those needs by focusing attention on the unfulfilled needs, but will not permanently regress to the lower level.

For instance, a businessman at the esteem level who is diagnosed with cancer will spend a great deal of time concentrating on his health (physiological needs), but will continue to value his work performance (esteem needs) and will likely return to work during periods of remission.

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Special thanks to William's Desk

williamgomes.org

Salem-News.com Writer William Nicholas Gomes is a Bangladeshi journalist, human rights activist and author was born on 25 December, 1985 in Dhaka. As an investigative journalist he wrote widely for leading European and Asian media outlets.

He is also active in advocating for free and independent media and journalists’ rights, and is part of the free media movement, Global Independent Media Center – an activist media network for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate telling of the truth. He worked for Italian news agency Asianews.it from year 2009 to 2011, on that time he was accredited as a free lance journalist by the press information department of Bangladesh. During this time he has reported a notable numbers of reports for the news agency which were translated into Chinese and Italian and quoted by notable number of new outlets all over the world.He, ideologically, identifies himself deeply attached with anarchism. His political views are often characterized as “leftist” or “left-wing,” and he has described himself as an individualist anarchist.