Hamid Mir | |
|---|---|
حامد میر | |
.jpg) Mirc. 2010 | |
| Born | (1966-07-23)23 July 1966 (age 59) |
| Education | Masters |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1987–present |
| Employer | Geo News (2002-present) |
| Known for | Interviewing Osama bin Laden |
| Television | Capital Talk |
| Spouse | Naheed Hamid |
| Children | 2 |
| Parents |
|
| Relatives | Amir Mir (brother) Huma Mir (sister) |
| Awards | Hilal-i-Imtiaz (Crescent of Excellence) Award (2013) by thePresident of Pakistan |
Hamid Mir[a] (born 23 July 1966) is a Pakistani journalist, columnist, political writer, and a national security expert. Mir initially worked as a journalist with Pakistani newspapers.[1] He has hosted the political talk showCapital Talk onGeo News intermittently since 2002. He writes columns forUrdu[2] as well as English newspapers, both national and international.[3][4] He has been a contributor to the Global Opinions section ofThe Washington Post since June 2021.[5] He is known for his stance against the dominance of theEstablishment in Pakistan.[6][7] Having survived two assassination attempts, Mir has been banned from television three times, and has lost his job twice due to his stand forpress freedom and human rights.[8]
Born inLahore to a journalistic family, Mir is one of the few journalists in the world to have interviewedOsama bin Laden after theSeptember 11 attacks along withTayseer Allouni.[9][10][11] During his career, Mir has also interviewed various world leaders which includes formerUN Secretary-GeneralBan Ki Moon, US Secretary of StateJohn Kerry,[12] US Secretary of StateHillary Clinton,[13]Prime Minister of United KingdomTony Blair,[14] US Secretary of StateColin Powell,[15]President of South AfricaNelson Mandela,President of IranMahmoud Ahmadinejad,[16] US Secretary of StateCondoleezza Rice,[17] President of PalestineYasser Arafat,Deputy Prime Minister of IndiaL.K. Advani,[18]President of AfghanistanHamid Karzai, andPresident of IsraelShimon Peres.[19] A few of the notable Pakistani political figures which Hamid Mir has interviewed includeBenazir Bhutto,Pervez Musharraf,Asif Ali Zardari,Nawaz Sharif,Imran Khan,Mir Zafaruallah Khan Jamali, andArif Alvi.[20] Mir has also interviewed actors such asShah Rukh Khan andAamir Khan.[21]
He was awarded with the civil awardHilal-i-Imtiaz for his work for Pakistan.[22] In 2016, he was awarded the "Most Resilient Journalist Award" in The Hague by Free Press Unlimited.[23][24] In 2017, he was awarded the lifetime achievement award by former Prime MinisterZafarullah Khan Jamali, atGovernment College University Lahore, for his work as a news anchor.[25][26]
Hamid Mir is the only journalist in South Asia to cover wars and conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Bosnia and Sri Lanka. For his war and conflict reporting, he was awardedSAARC Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010 inNew Delhi.[27]
Hamid Mir is regular participant in international seminars and conferences on security, human rights and press freedom.[28] He has delivered lectures atHarvard University,Yale University,University of Oxford,London School of Economics andUniversity of California, Berkeley.[29][30][31]
Hamid Mir's grandfather was Mir Abdul Aziz fromSialkot, who was a poet inPunjabi,Urdu andPersian.[32] Mir's father,Waris Mir, was also a columnist forDaily Jang and Mir's mother was Mumtaz Mir, who migrated to Pakistan fromJammu in the region ofJammu and Kashmir in 1947.[33] His father died on 9 July 1987 in Lahore and his mother died in 1993.[34] Hamid Mir studied atGovernment College University andUniversity of Punjab.
Mir is married to Naheed Hamid, who worked withPakistan television and for a private television channel for many years. The couple has two children. His two children and wife spent some time outside of the country because of security issues in 2007.[35]
Mir joined theDaily Jang (Lahore) in 1987 and worked there assub-editor, reporter, feature writer and edition in charge. In 1990, Mir was abducted, beaten and driven to a house where his captors demanded to know his source for the critical story he wrote when then PresidentGhulam Ishaq Khan was planning to dismiss the Bhutto government.[19] In 1994, he broke thesubmarines purchase scandal. Some close friends ofAsif Zardari (husband of then Prime MinisterBenazir Bhutto) were involved in that scandal, along with some Navy officials. Mir lost his job from daily Jang the day his article was published.[36]
In 1996, Mir became the editor of theDaily Pakistan inIslamabad, making him the youngest editor of any national Urdu newspaper in the history of Pakistani journalism. He lost his job again in 1997, when he wrote an article in theDaily Pakistan about the alleged corruption of Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif.[36] Also on 25 December 1997, he launchedDaily Ausaf (Islamabad) as founding editor.
Mir was the first Pakistani journalist to interviewOsama bin Laden. He first interviewed Bin Laden for theDaily Pakistan in March 1997, in a cave ofTora Bora mountains in eastern Afghanistan. Mir interviewed Bin Laden for the second time forAusaf in May 1998, in a hideout near theKandahar International Airport. Mir was one of the few journalists along with Allouni to interview Bin Laden after the September 11 attacks. Mir interviewed Bin Laden for the third time forDawn andAusaf on 8 November 2001, at an undisclosed location near Kabul.[37][38][39][40]
Mir went to easternAfghanistan, where he investigated the escape of Osama bin Laden fromTora Bora mountains in December 2001.[41] Mir visited the caves of bin Laden, during the American bombing. Mir also alleged that it was U.S.-backed Northern Alliance leader Hazrat Ali who provided safe passage to bin Laden after getting a huge bribe.[42] He has also written a biography of Osama bin Laden, as well as a weekly column inDaily Jang.[43]
In 2002, Mir joinedGeo News where he begin hosting a political talk showCapital Talk which is the oldest current events program inPakistan.[44][45][46] Special transmissions are also broadcast focusing on crises zones, more important ones of which took place duringLong March of 2009. His popularity increased as Geo became one of the popular TV channel in Pakistan where Pakistani politicians, both from the ruling and oppositions parties appeared to debate on current events and controversial topics.[19][47]
Mir was arrested byHezbollah in Beirut duringIsrael-Lebanon war in July 2006 while trying to cover the scenes of Israeli jets bombing onBeirut, but was later set free after Hezbollah was assured that he was not an Israeli spy. Just a few seconds before his escape, the place was bombed by Israeli forces, and he barely escaped the scene.[48]
On 16 March 2007, during live coverage of the lawyers' protest against the suspension of the Chief Justice of Supreme CourtIftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Mir was attacked by police at his Islamabad office.[49] Later, then President, Pervez Musharraf apologised to Mir in his show after few hours of the attack.[50] Mir was banned byPEMRA in November 2007 for four months to appear on TV. Mir came on roads after the ban and organised street shows. TheWashington Post published an article on his show on the roads.[51] He was again banned by the government of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in June 2008 for a few days on Geo News.[52] He investigated the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in a documentary aired on Geo TV in 2008.[53]
He appears on CNN, BBC and Indian channels as an analyst on issues related to Pakistan.[54] Mir claimed in an interview with independent online news sourceCanada Free Press thatal-Qaeda had acquired three so called 'suitcase nukes' from Russia, and had successfully smuggled them to Europe. Mir alleges these weapons have been in the possession of al-Qaeda since long before theSeptember 11 attacks, and that they were originally intended to be targeted against London, Paris and California. Mir also claims that al-Qaeda has 23 sleeper agents inside the United States (minus the 19 who died carrying out the 9/11 attacks) and that these terrorists already have enough radioactive material for six 'dirty bombs'.[55]
When Hamid Mir started highlighting the issue of enforced disappearances, fake cases started arising against him. In May 2010, an audio tape of a conversation between Mir and Usman Punjabi who was allegedly the 2nd in command ofHakimullah Mehsud surfaced. In the tape they allegedly discussed then-kidnappedKhalid Khawaja with Mir urging that he be further interrogated by his Taliban-linked captors. Khawaja was killed in April 2010 by his captors.Rashed Rahman, editor of the English-languageDaily Times newspaper said "If this tape turns out to be genuine, it suggests a journalist instigated the murder of a kidnapee. A line must be drawn somewhere."[56] Mir has denied the authenticity of the tape. Later on Usman Punjabi was killed by Taliban.[57]Hamid Mir faced the charge in Pakistani courts and nothing was proved against him.[58]
In December 2011, Mir received death threats after he hosted a TV show on Influence of ISI in Pakistani politics.[59]
He reportedly left Geo TV on 10 August 2018 and joinedGNN News as president.[60]
On August 10, 2018, Hamid Mir leftGeo News and joinedGNN as the president of the channel.[61] He started hostingHamid Mir Show on GNN. During his time with GNN, the news channel became very popular. However, Mir's stint remained brief at GNN as two months later on 12 October 2018, Hamid Mir left GNN.[62]
In October 2018, he rejoined Geo News and hosted his showCapital Talk.
In May 2021, after journalistAsad Ali Toor was attacked by masked men, Hamid Mir supported him and criticizedPakistan's military establishment, which has directly ruled Pakistan for nearly half of its existence sinceits creation in 1947. His focus of criticism was military dictatorGeneral Yahya Khan andAkleem Akhtar.[63] After this speech, on May 30, 2021, Mir was banned fromGeo News and it was reported that he would no longer host theCapital Talk show.[64] The leading political party was also running campaign against him on different social media platforms.[65] Later on, he clarified his statement that he was not against any institution, as Mir's family members were getting threats from unknown people.[66] On March 8, 2022, Hamid Mir made a comeback toCapital Talk after the nine-month ban was lifted.[67]
He was also the subject of an attempt on his life in November 2012, when half a kilogram of explosives were placed in his car, which was successfully defused by thebomb squad.[47][68][69][70][71] ThePakistani Taliban claimed responsibility.[19]
On 19 April 2014, Hamid Mir was fired upon by unknown gunmen and received three bullet injuries. He had earlier told his colleagues that if he is attacked, Pakistan's intelligence agency, theInter-Services Intelligence (ISI), "and its chief Lieutenant-GeneralZaheer-ul-Islam will be responsible" and had also sent to theCommittee to Protect Journalists a video recording implicating the ISI in case of any attempts on his life. Geo News was also banned for airing this statement of Hamid Mir.[72]
Mir has been repeatedly accused of being pro-Taliban. Taliban sympathizers accuse him of being aCIA agent under CIA Agent Farhan Dhadwal.[79][80] The Taliban allegedly planted a bomb under his car which was later defused due to his coverage of Malala Yousufzai assassination attempt.[81] He was labeled Indian agent after he invitedPervez Hoodbhoy in his program. There was an outcry next day in certain sections ofUrdu press that two Indian agents were sitting on Geo TV.[82] Musharraf declared Hamid Mir a Taliban sympathiser after the emergency rule of 2007 and banned him from Geo TV for more than four months. In an interview withMonthly Newsline Karachi (December 2008 issue), Mir explained his differences with Musharraf. Mir received threats from some militant groups when he wrote investigative stories on Taliban.[83]
Mir visited Bajour tribal area in January 2006 after a US missile attack in Damadola village. He claimed that the US missiles killed only innocent children and women, not Al Qaeda militants.[84] Hamid Mir treated Pakistani Information Minister very roughly in his show on theUS drone attacks.[85] The US Ambassador in Pakistan wrote a letter to the Geo TV management in September 2009 complaining about Mir on incorrect reporting.[86]
In 2016,Islamabad High Court dismissed a plea for including blasphemy charge brought against Mir.[87]
In 2009, Mir compared theHamas and the Taliban. According to Mir, "Hamas probably have more suicide bombers than Taliban, but they are different from each other". In an article titled "Hamas builds while Taliban bomb schools", Mir wrote that both Hamas and Taliban were born in refugee camps, and both were initially encouraged by the West. Mir claimed that some of the Hamas leaders were educated in Pakistani universities, and that many of them were part of theAfghan Jihad against the formerSoviet Union, and close toAbdullah Azzam who was also a mentor ofOsama bin Laden in early 1980s.[88]
His publications include:[89]
His grandfather Mir Abdul Aziz was an Urdu, Persian, and Punjabi language poet from Sialkot.
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