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The other high profile episode was the victimisation and harassment of journalists who had cooperated in the production of the British Broadcasting Corporation s(BBC) documentary Correspondent dealing with corruption in the government and business concerns of then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and allegations of money-laundering by his family.

The intimidation of journalists became public when intelligence agents in Lahore picked up Mehmood Ali Khan Lodhi, of The News, Lahore, on May 2. Lodhi was released after two days of interrogation on May 4, after journalists boycotted the coverage of the Punjab provincial assembly to protest Lodhi s abduction and demanded information about his whereabouts. There was no official explanation for his illegal detention.

According to Lodhi, the interrogators wanted to know details of his involvementwith a BBC team. Lodhi said the BBC had contacted him and he gave them the address, telephone numbers and directions to the house of Yousuf Aziz, Sharif s estranged cousin. Lodhi said that the interrogators were anxious to find the motives behind the documentary. He added that during the making of the documentary, he had received death threats for working with BBC.

On May 4, just after midnight, Hussain Haqqani, spokesperson of the opposition alliance and columnist for The Friday Times and the daily Jang was taken into the custody of Pakistan s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on corruption and embezzlement charges. However, the real reason for his detention was to punish him for the interview he gave to programme Correspondent .

The same day, Ejaz Haider, a news editor of The Friday Times, received an anonymous note warning him to install bulletproof windows in his car. Haider was not home at the time the note was delivered to Haider s 7-year-old son. Haider believed he was targeted because he worked for The Friday Times, whose owner, Najam Sethi had played a significant role in facilitating the production of Correspondent .

Sethi had to bear the full force of the government s anger for his role in organising the visit and for being interviewed for the programme. According to press reports, senior government officials had cautioned him not to work with the BBC team, terming it an attempt to destabilise the country and overthrow the government. Sethi said he had received numerous threatening phone calls; he feared that his house and office would be attacked and he would be arrested.

His fears proved to be well founded; on May 8, about fifteen armed men arrived in vehicles bearing government registration plates stormed Sethi s house at around3:00 am and started beating Sethi s two personal guards posted at the gate. They then entered the house and banged at the bedroom door. As soon as Sethi opened the door they started beating him. His wife, Jugnu Mohsin, was also beaten and loc

ked in a room and warned not to raise the alarm. The officials became abusive when she asked to see the arrest warrants.

The official reason given for his arrest was a speech he had delivered at the India-Pakistan Friendship Society on April 30 in New Delhi on problems facing Pakistan. The official charge did not have much credibility as Sethi had delivered the same speech earlier to the armed forces personnel at the National Defence College. A government spokesman also alleged that Sethi had been arrested for his anti-state activities and links with Indian intelligence agents.

Sethi was detained for several days at an undisclosed location. The police evenrefused to acknowledge that he had been arrested, although information was leaked to the press that he was in the custody of military s Inter-Services Intelligenc

e (ISI) agency.On May 12, the Lahore High Court rejected a petition by Jugnu Mohsin to produceSethi before the court because he was being held by military intelligence. On Ma

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