Efs welcomes draft bill seeking journalists safety.

KARACHI -- Editors for Safety (EfS), a forum comprising a large number of newspaper editors and director news of leading televisions channels, has welcomed the move by the Ministry of Human Rights to draft a landmark bill that is aimed at ensuring safety and security of journalists against intimidation, abduction, torture and murder. The draft bill, once approved by the federal cabinet, and passed by the national parliament into law,

will be a significant first step in fulfilling the long-standing demand of the Pakistani journalists to check the prevailing culture of impunity for crimes against journalist. The bill was presented before the federal cabinet on Tuesday, February 25, 2020 for approval, but for some unexplained reasons the cabinet decided to club it with an earlier bill prepared by the ministry of Information and Broadcasting, and sent it to the Ministry of Law for vetting. The EfS believes the bill prepared by the Human Rights ministry is quite comprehensive, and covers several key issues, including the setting up of a commission of inquiry under a retired supreme court judge, to investigate matters of murder, torture and intimidation of journalists. The EfS would like to remind the government that two more journalists were murdered in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkwa the last ten days. The...