ISLAMABAD – A cartoonist in Pakistan says one of the country’s leadingEnglish-language dailies has told him to stop drawing for them following acontroversy over his caricature of the country’s prime minister this week.
Khalid Hussain, 54, a professional cartoonist, told RFE/RL’s Gandharawebsite that the management of The Nation newspaper informed him that theywill not be printing his cartoons after a sketch of his depicting PakistaniPrime Minister Imran Khan garnered angry reactions from senior governmentofficials after being published on September 25.
“I don’t know how long they will not be printing my cartoons or whetherthey will ever print my cartoons [again],” he told Gandhara on September 27.
It was not immediately possible to reach The Nation’s management.
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But in a September 26 statement to its readers, the paper apologized forHussain’s cartoon. “The artwork fell short of our standards and does notreflect our editorial policy,” the statement said.
“We are proud to be a nationalistic paper, and we regret sincerely theattention taken by an artwork that was inappropriate, especially at thetime of the UN General Assembly session taking place in New York,” thestatement said adding that “necessary steps have been taken to ensure ourinternal procedures” without elaborating.
