Pakistan newspaper questions Indian journalists' expulsion

ISLAMABAD: A leading Pakistani newspaper today criticised the government's move to expel two Indian journalists and asked it to make their stand clear on the reason for its action.

In an abrupt action, Pakistan has expelled the two Indian journalists posted there and asked them to leave without assigning any reason.

Snehesh Alex Philip of the Press Trust of India (PTI) and Meena Menon of The Hindu newspaper were told to leave the country by May 20.

"The expulsion order handed out to the two Indian journalists in Pakistan, Snehesh Alex Philip and Meena Menon, hardly reflects well on either journalistic freedoms in Pakistan, or the latter's respect for the Fourth Estate," the editorial of the Dawn newspaper said.

The editorial asked Pakistan's Ministry of Information "to make its position clear, and at the very least make public the exact reason why Philip and Menon have been asked to leave."

Pakistan has a system of giving visas to Indian journalists for a few months at a time and they are then required to repeatedly seek extensions.

The Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi had earlier said that India intends to take up the matter with Pakistan.