Pakistan: Zafar Achakzai charged for anti-army post

Islamabad, Pakistan - A Pakistani journalist arrested 
last week at his home in the southwestern city of Quetta 
has been charged with allegedly posting illegal material on Facebook, rights groups and his family said.

Armed men, some in paramilitary uniform and others in
plainclothes, broke down the door to Zafar Achakzai's 
home on June 25 and arrested him, Achakzai's father told Al
Jazeera.

He was handed over to the Federal Investigation 
Agency on Thursday and charged under the Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), said Naimat Achakzai.

Provincial government officials did not respond to 
Al Jazeera's requests for comment on the case.

The detention is the latest in a series of arrests 
targeting journalists and social media activists for 
criticising the country's powerful military, which has ruled Pakistan for roughly half of its 69 years since independence.

The crackdown was ordered by Interior Minister Chaudhry
Nisar Ali Khan, according to an interior ministry statement 
on May 14.

Achakzai said that he believed his son was arrested for
criticising security forces regarding their handling of 
a hit-and- run case where a provincial lawmaker allegedly struck and killed a traffic policeman.

The case went viral on social media after CCTV footage
appeared to show the lawmaker's car striking the 
policeman and driving away.

Naimat Achakzai owns the Daily Qudrat newspaper, 
an Urdu language daily with a small print run but a huge following online, with more than seven million followers on Facebook across Pakistan.

Zafar Achakzai, 21, is the newspaper's chief reporter, 
he said.

"They broke the door down, they assaulted our family
members … They took him from us during this raid,"
 said Naimat, of the raid.

"I was asking where they had come from, but they 
were not telling us. Whoever spoke to them, they would 
slap them."

Zafar's mobile phones and laptop were also taken 
during the raid, Naimat said. Family members said they 
have been denied any information on the whereabouts of Zafar Achakzai since his abduction.

In a statement, the Committee to Protect Journalists 
(CPJ) called for the immediate release of the journalist. Freedom Network, a leading Pakistani media watchdog, 
said it was concerned by the latest arrest.

"We are seeing more and more that people in smaller
 towns and cities are using social media to express themselves, and this is the last frontier that the 
government is trying to control," Iqbal Khattak, Freedom Network’s safety advisor, told Al Jazeera.

"I think they are systematically, slowly and steadily going
towards controlling the medium the same way they have
almost completely controlled the print and electronic 
media," Khattak said.

Pakistan has a vibrant media, with dozens of private 
television news stations and newspapers, but the 
country consistently ranks low on press freedom 
rankings, mainly due to censorship around the role 
of the military in both security and political affairs, and 
threats from armed groups such as the Pakistani Taliban.

The country slipped to 139 out of 180 countries on 
Reporters Without Borders' (RSF) World Press Freedom 
Index in 2017.

RSF has specifically pointed to the use of the 
Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) as a 
means to control the news media. PECA criminalises 
any online posts that are critical of the country’s military, government and other institutions of the
State.

Last month, dozens of political activists were arrested 
and charged under PECA for allegedly posting material 
that was critical of the military.