Pakistan urges Karzai to pardon reporter

KABUL for illegal entry and contacting militants.

Faizullah Khan, working as a reporter for the private TV channel ARY, was detained in April by Afghan security forces in eastern Nangarhar province.

Later, he was sentenced to four years in jail for entering the landlocked without valid travel documents and meeting militants in eastern Afghanistan.

Addressing a news conference in Islamabad on Thursday, Minister of Information Pervez Rashid appealed to President Hamid Karzai to pardon the journalist.

A court in Nangarhar is expected take up next week Faizullah Khan’s appeal against his conviction. The Karachi-based reporter had gone missing from the tribal area on April 22.

The Foreign Office says it has been making efforts for the reporter’s release. The Pakistani consul-general has hired a Jalalabad-based law firm to file the appeal against the conviction.

PAN Monitor/mud

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