JournalismPakistan.com | Published August 10, 2021
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ISLAMABAD—Terming Prime Minister Imran Khan, a weak premier, former Geo News presenter Hamid Mir said he was not directly responsible for taking him off the air.
“Imran Khan is not directly responsible for imposing a ban on me. I don’t think he wants me to be off the air. But like past prime ministers, he is not a very powerful prime minister. He is helpless, and he can’t help me,” Mir told BBC’s Stephen Sackur in Hard Talk.
In a wide-ranging interview, Mir said the space for freedom of expression is shrinking in Pakistan, and journalists face a climate of fear. He added that there was no democracy in Pakistan.
“There is democracy in Pakistan, but there is no democracy. There is a constitution in Pakistan, but there is no constitution.”
Mir termed himself as a living example of censorship in Pakistan.
Though he did not take any names responsible for attacks on journalists, he maintained that intelligence agencies had been blamed repeatedly for attacking and kidnapping journalists. “All those people who are trying to snatch media freedom from us are enemies of Pakistan,” he said.
Mir said he was ready to face prison if convicted in the six sedition cases lodged against him. But he added that it would also show to the world “what is going on in Pakistan.”
However, he again clarified that he was not against the military institution while talking about his May 28 speech outside the National Press Club in Islamabad. “So I clarified that I never mentioned any name...I thought that maybe my tone was very harsh, and maybe some people were trying to give the impression that I was blaming the whole institution, so I clarified my position that I am not blaming the whole institution. I only talked about some individuals who are trying to silence the voice of the media.”
Though he expressed his disappointment with his employers, the Jang Group, for not standing by him, he said he understood the pressure they faced.
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