Islamabad: A journalist who exposed the conflict of interest of Senator Saifullah Abbro last year has now been victimized by him in another matter during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Interior.
Zaman Mughal, a senior crime reporter and Bureau Chief of ABN News Islamabad, had reported in July last year that Senator Saifullah Abbro had a clear conflict of interest, as his family owns a construction company, M/s Qallandar Bux Abbro.
The reporter, with evidence, maintained that Mr. Abbro’s company is engaged with the National Highway Authority (NHA), but at the same time, he openly criticized the projects of the road authority.
It is pertinent to mention here that Senator Saifullah Abbro was quite aggressive against the successful bidding of Tranche-III of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) project and tried hard to halt the project. However, later, he himself surprisingly cleared the project for reasons publicly unknown.
However, in recent days, Zaman Mughal broke a news story linking another senator with a huge quantity of cigarettes confiscated by the Customs Department.
Later, when the matter came before the Senate Standing Committee on Interior, Senator Saifullah Abbro tried to settle his score with the journalist and came down hard on the issue.
He allegedly suggested that the journalist should be arrested and that cases similar to those registered against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) workers should be lodged against Zaman Mughal and the owners of the TV channel.
The journalist community and civil society have condemned the behaviour of Senator Saifullah Abbro and argued that journalists cannot be sent behind bars over factual reporting.
When contacted by Infra News PK, Zaman Mughal said that he had done a story against Senator Saifullah Abbro based on verifiable information. He added that when he broke the story regarding the cigarette issue, he again had all the evidence to support his report.
He said he is ready to surrender before any law enforcement agency if required in connection with his journalism.
