Journalist critical of government seized

Rizwan Razi, who worked for private Din TV in the city of Lahore, was being investigated for “defamatory and obnoxious” comments about the judiciary, government and intelligence services, according to Pakistan’s law enforcement agency.

However, there was no official confirmation he had been arrested. “My father went out of home to see off friends,” his son Osama told Reuters of the incident yesterday morning.

“When the friends left, unknown persons, riding a black Honda Civic car, thrashed and dragged him in the car and fled away... I ran after the car but could not do anything.”

Pakistani journalists say they face an increasingly hostile climate since the vote last year that saw Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) take power.

A report from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), dated yesterday, said Razi had previously been questioned about his Twitter comments.

It said authorisation had been granted to register a case against him. His account @ RaziDada appeared to be offline yesterday.

FIA officials in Lahore referred questions to the main office in Islamabad, where officials could not be reached.

Khan’s government replaced the party of ousted former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who was at odds with the powerful military and is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence for corruption.