The briefing given to the Parliamentary Committee on National Security by the military high command, including the Chief of Army Staff, was placed under a gag order by PEMRA, and the ban on journalists covering the proceedings prompted pressmen to stage a sit-in outside Parliament House while the meeting took place. They had been refused entry because of ‘security reasons.’ It is relevant that the committee did not meet in a committee room, but in the main hall of the Assembly, to which journalists would have access from the Press Gallery.
It seems difficult to guess what is the point of all this. Who were the journalists supposed to threaten; the senior military officials or the Parliamentary bigwigs who were present, or was this part of the attempt to enforce the gag order. When the Committee had received a similar briefing in July, its contents had been reported by dint of information gathered from those parliamentarians who had attended.
The question arises as to why the gag order was imposed? The Speaker does have the right to declare any committee meeting in camera. Indeed, he can declare a session of the House as in camera. However, if anyone thinks that this prevents foreign countries, hostile or just interested, from finding out the contents of the briefing, would be sadly mistaken. The secrecy surrounding the briefing is likely to give rise to speculation, and a lot of wink-and-nudge retelling of the briefing. The best way of preventing this would have been for any of the officials involved, probably the Speaker, to have issued a press release, one reasonably enough to satisfy pressmen. Internally, there would be interest in how the security establishment perceived the internal challenge posed by the Teheeik Labaik Pakistan, and how the Taliban takeover of Kabul was perceived. These and other topics are too important for any garbled versions to be given currency
The press is committed to watching over the three branches of government, and of informing the public of their doings. However, that does not mean it is ignorant of the demands of national security. It may not accept a definition handed to it. That means that this gag order will merely mean members of the media going out and getting the story, telling it some way disconnected from the briefing. Does the government really want that?
