A new Dawn for Pakistani scribe

Pakistan government on Friday decided to take journalist Cyril Almeida’s name off the exit control list (ECL), three days after he was put on the no-fly list.

The decision was made by federal minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan after a meeting with the representatives of the media bodies here.

Mr Khan had invited officials of newspaper representative bodies to discuss the matter after a recently published story of one of Dawn’s staffers which claimed differences between the civil and the military leaders over the anti-terror war.

The Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) president and secretary general, said that the organisation was of the view that the Pakistan Constitution guaranteed freedom of expression.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Army top brass on Friday expressed “serious concern” over the news leak.

Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif presided over a meeting of corps commanders held at the general headquarters in Rawalpindi.

“Participants expressed their serious concern over feeding of false and fabricated story of an important security meeting held at the Prime Minister’s House and viewed it as breach of national security,” said a statement by the army.

The Prime Minister’s Office has repeatedly denied any rift between the two establishments since the story came out.