The Frontier Post
| File:Frontier Post.PNG | |
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner(s) | Rahmat Shah Afridi |
| Editor | Rahmat Shah Afridi |
| Founded | 1984 |
| Headquarters | Peshawar, Pakistan |
| Circulation | 39,000[citation needed] |
| Website | www.thefrontierpost.com |
The only English-language newspaper distributed through Pakistan and Afghanistan collectively, The Frontier Post is based in Peshawar, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, previously known as the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan.
Launched in February 1984 by Rahmat Shah Afridi, it is published in Peshawar, Lahore and Quetta.
History
The paper originated in Peshawar, but in 1990 they opened a branch in Lahore where Khaled Ahmed served as its resident editor.[1]
In 2005, reporter Amir Nawab travelled to Sararogha to cover the ceasefire proposed by Baitullah Mehsud, but was killed by a local militant group dubbing itself Sipah-e-Islam who stated that they believed journalists were "being used as tools in negative propagand...against the Muslim mujahideen".[2]
Editorial position
The editorial staff, which is predominantly from the Afridi tribe, has been supportive of the Jirga system of government, referring to it as "one of the most time-honoured institutions in the tribal world".[3]
In January 2010, the paper issued an editorial harshly criticising the sudden demonisation of the Pakistani government, after the US-backed dictator Pervez Musharraf was removed, and Western accusations that the new government was sponsoring militants in Afghanistan.[4]
Blasphemy case
In order to understand this case, one really has to look at how the affairs of The Frontier Post were being handled by its management. It's a paper that's been in active decline for the past seven to eight years, steadily it's lost all its good journalists... and basically the problem arose because none of the newspaper monitoring bodies... was bothered enough to look into the affairs of that paper, and to talk to its management about how they were handling it. So if a newspaper employee is drug addicted, such a mistake is quite likely to happen.
— Ahmed Ahmer Khan, The Herald[5]
On January 29 2001, the Post ran afoul of federal blasphemy laws when it printed a Letter to the editor titled "Why Muslims Hate Jews", sent by eMail seemingly from an American Jew named Ben Z'Dec, that was harshly critical of Islam.[6] Five employees were charged; the paper responded by filing action with the police against two of its employees it believed had deliberately inserted the letter without approval, hoping to harm the media outlet.[7][8][9][10] Vandals later attacked the Post's offices in retaliation for the perceived offence, and set the printing press on fire.[11][12]
Ultimately charges were only upheld against four men, Munawwar Mohsin who had been directly responsible for printing the letter in the paper, news editor Aftab Ahmad and Computers Chief Wajeehul Hassan, and General Editor Mahmood Shah Afridi. Mohsin was convicted, Ahmad and Hassan were acquitted, and Afridi absconded.[13]
The trial revealed that the Post had hired Mohsin only days before he printed the letter, unaware that he was a drug addict who had fled from the local mental hospital, since they were hardpressed to find English-speaking people willing to help coordinate the publication of their paper. He was convicted of the blasphemy charges and sentenced to life imprisonment, but found to be "mentally ill".[14] [15]
According to The Globe, the paper was ultimately "not guilty of blasphemy...it was guilty of inefficiency".[16]
In June 2001, similar charges were laid against the Urdu-language paper Mohasib.[17]
Columnists
- Dr. Sher Zaman[18]
- Sajid Ansari
- Feyyaz M. Pasha
- Dr. Tanvir Hussain Bhatti
- Farman Nawaz
- Saqib Tanveer
- Yusuf Lodhi
- Afrasiab Khattak
- Air Commodore (Retd) Khalid Iqbal
- Ghulam Asghar Khan
- Dr. Abdul Ruff
- Barrister Amjad Malik
- Sajjad Shaukat
- Dr. Raja Muhammad Khan
- Mamoona Ali Kazmi
- Akbar Mayo
- Asad Khan Bettini
- Afshan Afzal
- Dr. Raja Muhammad Khan
- Maryam Gillani
- Dr Inayatullah Fazi
- Syed Usman Azhar
See also
Footnotes
- ^ Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley, Interview with Khaled Ahmed
- ^ Committee to Protect Journalists, CPJ Pakistan Cases: 2002-2006
- ^ Amritsar to Lahore: A Journey Across the India-Pakistan Border", by Stephen Alter, page 101
- ^ http://worldmeets.us/thefrontierpost000049.shtml
- ^ ABC, Pakistani Media, 8 March 2001
- ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1146326.stm
- ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1146326.stm
- ^ Islamic Center of Southern California, The Minaret, "A Tale of Two Newspapers", Volume 23, 2001
- ^ Tikekar, Maneesha. "Across the Wagah: An Indian's Sojurn in Pakistan", page 230
- ^ Karatnycky, Adrian. "Freedom in the World: The Annual Survey of Political Rights and Civil Liberties". Page 461
- ^ Washington Post: "In Pakistan: A Press Only So Free", Feb 16, 2001
- ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3056495.stm
- ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3056495.stm
- ^ http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_10-7-2003_pg3_1
- ^ Jan, Faizullah, The Story of an Addict, 2003
- ^ The Globe: a new review of world-literature, society, religion, art and politics ", Volume 14, page 82
- ^ Karatnycky, Adrian. "Freedom in the World: The Annual Survey of Political Rights and Civil Liberties". Page 461
- ^ http://www.khyberwatch.netfirms.com/taizifurther.htm
External links
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