ISLAMABAD: The journalist community, including well-known TV anchor Hamid Mir, has reacted strongly to a statement by Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry who said that some journalists criticise state institutions to get asylum abroad.
Federal Minister Information Minister Fawad Chaudhary said that certain journalists in the past have blamed the military and institutions only to receive political asylum and immigration to foreign countries.
The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists and other journalists reacted strongly to the minister’s insinuations, saying that the statement reflected that the government was showing no seriousness in investigating cases of violence against journalists and media professionals.
The minister said the previous reports about attacks on journalists Hamid Mir and Hidayat Ullah had not been made public by the government. “I support that all reports relating to attacks on journalists should be made public as real problems arise when such events don’t reach a conclusion,” said Fawad Chaudhry while speaking to a private channel.
The minister said these incidents led to a distrust in the justice system. He said the present government, headed by Prime Minister Imran Khan, did not believe in keeping reports secret.
اب آپ دیکھیں گے کہ پچاس ہزار روپے مہینے پر بھرتی کئے گئے کئی وی لاگرز میدان میں آئیں گے ہم پر الزامات لگا کر اپنی تنخواہ حلال کریں گے لیکن پاکستان کے عوام کو سب پتہ چل چکا ہے کہ فارن ایجنڈے پر عمل درآمد کرانے والے کون ہیں؟ https://t.co/44eDyHx2nn
— Hamid Mir (@HamidMirPAK) May 28, 2021
Responding to the minister’s claim that certain journalists blame state institutions to seek political asylum abroad, Hamid Mir termed the minister’s remarks unfortunate.
“I was attacked but I am still in Pakistan. I was offered asylum abroad but it refused. Matiullah Jan was attacked once but he is also in Pakistan. Absar Alam is also present in Pakistan. Ahmad Durrani went abroad just to study and still said he will come back,” he said.
“I would like to ask the minister why senior military officials like Gen Musharraf are living abroad?” Mir asked.
The minister would not be able to answer as to who is funding Musharraf’s stay abroad or why most of the top intelligence officials get lucrative jobs outside Pakistan after retirement, he added. “I think that people like Musharraf were more loyal to outsiders than Pakistan that’s why he is spending the rest of his life outside Pakistan,” he said.
Hamid Mir said he had declined an offer of political asylum abroad after surviving an assassination attempt in Karachi. “I blamed Gen Zaheer for the attack, if he was innocent why did he never appear before the inquiry commission,” Mir said, adding that if he was wrong about his claim why the inquiry commission never released any report.
Mir said that as a journalist he chose to remain in the country, refusing lucrative offers. “It was easy for me to get a job outside Pakistan. I was offered to write a book on that issue and make millions of dollars but I declined. I never went outside because I am not Gen Musharraf,” he said.
“I will prove that you sit it Pakistan and protect the interests of Israel, India and the United States,” he said. “You handed over Pakistan’s military bases to foreigners since the time of Ayub Khan,” he said.
