Hamid Mir Attack: ISI Charges Seemingly Based On Assumption

The participation of Inter-Services Intelligence in the attack on Hamid Mir, a veteran journalist, two year ago was ruled out by an inquiry commission headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan, Anwar Zaheer Jamali.

The three-judge commission including Justices Ejaz Afzal Khan and Iqbal Hameedur Rahman, in a 41-page report, was of the notion that the charges against the country’s major intelligence agency and its involvement in the attack were based on ‘suspicions, assumptions or apprehensions’.

Hamid Mir had suffered from critical injuries on April 19, 2014, when unknown gunmen fired on his car along Shara-e-Faisal. The supposed attack occurred following his arrival at Karachi airport. The attack was publicized by both national and international media.

Mir’s colleague at GEO TV launched a propaganda campaign against the ISI. For hours on end, the television network ran reports on air firing accusation on the agency for its involvement in the attack, while also airing the photograph of the then ISI director general, Lieutenant-General (retd) Zaheerul Islam.

Following a nine month investigation, a report was drafted by the inquiry commission claiming that there was a contention between some journalists and the ISI, because of some alleged discontentment by the spy agency with reporting.

The report further went on to claim that the law enforcement agencies had failed in their duty to investigate the incident. CCTV footage that was observed by in-camera proceedings of the commission showed two individuals at the Karachi airport acting strangely upon Mir’s arrival. Irrespective of this, law enforcement agencies had failed in arresting any actual culprits, the report added.

Despite the actions of officials of the ISI and Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) in separating the spy agency from the attack, several members of the print and electronic media group still accused it.

“We cannot lose sight of an important aspect of the matter – the interaction of media persons with agencies in the course of their professional duties. In the process, there are concerns raised on behalf of the agencies vis-à-vis reporting on sensitive issues of national security. Such concerns have their genesis in various articles of the Constitution, including articles 5 and 10(7),” the report stated.

It further went on to state that the right to freedom of speech is bound by certain reasonable restrictions, including the interest of integrity, security and defence of Pakistan, not to mention friendly relations with foreign states.

“The mad race for breaking news and getting a lead makes things from bad to worse. Falsehood is propagated brazen-facedly and truth obliterated or, worse, confounded.”

The rife between the media entities and agencies is a call for a resolution to ensure harmony, unity and balance from both sides.

It suggested a tool to be implemented in order to handle the complaints of journalists so that concerned individuals can be treated according to law.

Included in the report were the suggestions of the commission to look into the death of the late journalist, Saleem Shehzad.

“We have gone through those recommendations and would reiterate the same. In this behalf, the recommendations made by a Special Working Group of the Pakistan Coalition on Media Safety to investigate the attacks against the media persons, namely provision for the appointment of a special prosecutor, legal aid unit, family counseling unit and primary case investigation unit, are also worth consideration at the appropriate level,” it said.

Following GEO TV’s slur campaign against the spy agency, ISI after the attack on Hamid Mir, its network license was suspended for 15 days by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra), on June , 2014 and was also plastered with a fine of Rs10 million. The network was warned by the authority to abstain from making such a mistake in the future, failure of which will result to a cancelation of its license.

Consequently, a reference was filed by the defence ministry in collaboration with Pemra, asking for the network’s license to be canceled. The ministry in its reference claimed that GEO TV and Jang Group had commenced an unfounded campaign against ISI and its former chief, Lt-Gen (retd) Zaheerul Islam, mentioning that their actions of targeting national security institutions was not new.

The reference furthermore claimed that Geo and Jang Group had been involved in unprofessional reporting subsequent to the death of American journalist Daniel Pearl, journalist Wali Babat and Supreme Court officer Hammad, including the deaths of the parents of a senior court judge.

“The recent propaganda campaign by Geo provided an opportunity to anti-Pakistan forces to defame the country,” the reference stated.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=52616

Posted by modousarr on Apr 12 2016. Filed under Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.