Renowned journalist and analyst Hamid Mir has said that the threat of martial law has increased.
Addressing a session on South Asian civil society at the Asma Jahangir Conference, Hamid Mir said that the situation in the country was not changing. He said that the PECA Ordinance was brought by the previous government but the present government has also been following in their footsteps.
Hamid Mir said that if the media would have been free in 1970, then it would have been accused of breaking Pakistan into two pieces. Mir said that he was banned during Imran Khan’s tenure and those who called the media tax evaders should prove the charge.
Mir started his address by apologizing to Steven Butler, senior program consultant for the Committee to Protect Journalists, for the inconvenience that he had faced after his arrival at Allama Iqbal International Airport Lahore.
Butler was stopped for questioning and clearance for around eight hours at the airport because his name was added to the stop list by the Interior Ministry in 2019.
Hamid Mir said that the episode of stopping the foreign journalist at the airport had summed up what kind of country Pakistan was for the journalists.
He also said that he condemned the treason cases filed against all such journalists including Imran Riaz, Sabir Shakir and Arshad Sharif. Hamid Mir said that Manzoor Pashteen, who was not allowed to come on any channel of Pakistan was sitting at Asma Jahangir’s conference, further adding that the rulers who used to claim that the media was banned during Imran Khan’s time should have removed restrictions now.
