Pakistan lifts travel ban on top journalist Cyril Almeida

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan government on Friday removed a travel ban imposed on journalist Cyril Almeida over a report he wrote about a rift between the civil and military

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan government on Friday removed a travel ban imposed on journalist Cyril Almeida over a report he wrote about a rift between the civil and military leadership.

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The government’s decision followed a meeting between interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and information minister Pervaiz Rashid and representatives of the All Pakistan Newspapers Society and Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors.

The government put Almeida’s name in the Exit Control List (ECL) after he filed a report in the Dawn newspaper on October 6 about a tense, high-level meeting between civilian and military leaders during which foreign secretary Aizaz Chaudhry reportedly said Pakistan was facing growing international isolation for failing to tackle terrorism.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Army’s top commanders on Friday expressed serious concern at the publication of a “false and fabricated story” about an important security meeting held at the Prime Minister’s House “in a national English language daily”.

They viewed the report as a “breach of national security”.