Police on Monday cordoned off the Press Club in Karachi to prevent a demonstration against the imposition of emergency by civil society activists and raided the printing press of Pakistan's leading Jang media group.
Police and provincial information department personnel entered the premises of Awam, an Urdu eveninger of the country's biggest-selling newspaper group, following reports that it was planning to publish a special supplement on the emergency, officials said.
Policemen stopped work at the press and searched the office of Awam, but left after finding no indications that it was planning to publish a supplement, they said. The Jang group also owns the popular Geo television network.
An official of the press said the raid was carried out to stop the publication of a supplement of the eveninger, which intended to publish photographs of women lawyers being roughed up by the police. The press was sealed for a while but the it was functioning again now, he said.
An information department official said the action was carried out under the new press information ordinance issued after the emergency.
Later, a group of about 40 civil society activists gathered for a protest against the clamping of emergency outside the Karachi Press Club but a large police contingent deployed at the spot prevented the demonstration.
As police tried to disperse the activists, they rushed into the Press Club to take shelter inside. Police then cordoned off the building and were waiting outside to arrest the activists, a journalist in the Press Club told PTI.
"There are several women activists who had come for the protest and they are now afraid to step out of the Press Club as they know they will be arrested. They have even tried pleading with the police officers but to no avail," said the journalist who did not want to be named.
"This is deja vu...just like the martial law days of General Zia-ul-Haq when the sanctity of the press and press club was not given any importance," a senior journalist, Shamim-ur Rehman, said.
The police had earlier blocked all roads leading to the club in a bid to quell the demonstration against emergency and President Pervez Musharraf.
A few miles away, police used teargas and baton-charged lawyers holding protests outside and inside the Sindh High Court building.
A television channel reported that some 310 lawyers had been either arrested or detained throughout the day in the Sindh province, including Karachi.
As part of the emergency imposed on Saturday, President Musharraf has placed strict curbs on the media, including a ban on publishing the statements of militants and anything that defames or ridicules the government. Public protests and demonstrations have also been banned.
A statement from the Jang group said police 'moved in to seal the printing press' after the management 'refused to bow down to verbal orders from government officials to stop printing' the Awam.
It said the Awam had to print 'extra editions to cope with the need for information by the public who are starved of credible news following closure of the country's private news channels' after the imposition of emergency.
Information department officials phoned Awam's editor Nazeer Leghari and ordered him not to print a supplement.
'However, when these verbal orders were not followed, the officials came to the press and threatened workers there. After this, police also arrived on the scene and threatened to seal the press,' the statement said.
Hundreds of journalists and press workers gathered at Jang's press, and the management and editors held discussions with the Press Information Department and police.
'When asked under what law they were threatening to seal the press, or whether this threat extended to all Jang group publications and indeed to the entire print media of the country, the officials said they had received orders only in respect of the afternoon paper Awam,' the statement said.
When the management refused to back down, the government officials left, it said.