Zubair Qureshi
In his first post-acquittal address at the National Press Club, senior journalist and Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Jinnah and Online International News Agency, Mohsin Jameel Baig on Thursday pledged to make an example of those officials of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the police who had tortured him in the lockup. He was addressing the media persons after a 17-day arrest in Adiala Jail.
“I have never been a negative man in my life nor believed in taking revenge,” said Mohsin Baig at a reception organized in his honour jointly by the National Press Club and the Rawalpindi Islamabad Union of Journalists “but the way they treated me in Islamabad which is the capital of Pakistan and on one phone call by the Prime Minister’s Office, has changed my entire outlook on life.”
This is not out of personal grudge or vendetta but I want no other journalist to face such a life-threatening situation, clarified Mohsin Baig. I would try my best to get a law passed that could prevent any such act against journalists in future, he said. In jail, I saw from close quarters the deplorable conditions the prisoners are living in and would do something to help them, he said.
Mohsin Baig regretted the highly qualified heads of the FIA and the political leadership didn’t stop for a second while ordering the force to break into his house without fulfilling the legal requirements.
“When they entered my home, I was sleeping and my wife and children woke me up,” said Mohsin Baig. While responding to the criticism that he waved a gun in front of the FIA and police, Mohsin Baig said that he had a licensed weapon and when someone enters your house without showing any identity or furnishing a warrant you might take that intruder for a robber and could use that weapon in your defence. Why do you forget that I am head of my family and supposed to protect them, he said to his critics?
On the occasion, a large number of journalists and media persons expressed solidarity with Mohsin Baig and called him a brave man for facing the worst odds and third degree tactics by his estranged friend Imran Khan and his cronies.
