Aasha Khosa/New Delhi

Pakistan’s most well-known journalist Najam Sethi has blamed Imran Khan for pursuing a policy of vindictiveness towards his critics in the media. “Imran Khan has been the most repressive of all the Pakistani rulers so far,” the Friday Times Editor said on a television show.

While speaking on the show Naya Daur with Raza Rumi, Sethi said Imran Khan’s tenure saw the worst kind of suppression of media. The regime ordered TV shows critical of Army and government policies closed with the owners quickly sacking the presenters like Sethi and Mir.

Currently, he said the Imran Khan government has finalized a draconian ordinance  to set up a super regulatory Media development Authority that would empower the authorities to have more control on the media. He said even the Army General turned dictator Zia-ul-Haq regime did not suppress the media as much as Imran Khan is doing.

The Khan government is facing a serious backlash from inside and outside the country for its growing intolerance of the media and assaults on journalists who raise questions after attack on a digital media person Asad Ali Toor and then ban on Hamid Mir who openly threatened to expose the dirty secrets of its bigwigs.

Toor was thrashed black and blue by some “unknown persons’ who, in Pakistan, are usually the ISI guys, who barged into his house.” He told media that the attackers noted down her young daughter’s mobile number and have circulated it in the social media asking people to send her vulgar messages.

He was seen with a broken arm when Hamid Mir and other journalists got together to show their support for Toor.

Mir, an influential journalist, who for years anchored a popular television show Capital Talk, till the other day went emotional and openly threatened the Army (including ISI). Mir said the journalists would be forced to expose the dirty secrets of the top leaders of Army. His video was released on Twitter:

#AsadToor a young Pakistani journalist was attacked & brutally beaten by ISI goons. At a protest gathering, top Pakistani journalist & TV anchor @HamidMirPAK launched a scathing attack on the Pak Army. Hamid Mir has been shot in the past for raising his voice against injustice. pic.twitter.com/3ALBtMXhGE

— Major Gaurav Arya (Retd) (@majorgauravarya) May 30, 2021

Daring the Army (read Army plus ISI) to touch a journalist, he we will tell the world why someone’s wife shot at him; who was General Rani.” He said since the journalists can’t barge into their house and match their power of “guns and tanks’ they would take recourse of exposing them.

A visibly angry Mir said he had thrown a hint about the capacity of the media in exposing those behind the attack on Tor and others.

Mir said his attackers had asked Tor to shout slogans like “Israel Murdabad,’ and it showed their guilty conscience. In the same video Mir accused that in private Army Generals had been supportive of relations with Israel and making peace with India.

Mir was also attacked once and he suffered a serious gunshot injury.

Folllowing his outburst outside the National press Club, the Jung media group had sacked Mir from his show Capital Talk. The entire media community of Pakistan has stood in protest against this move.

What is the episode of General Rani. General Rani is a nickname given to women with whom Army Generals have extra marital affairs. The name had started from  General Ayub’s time. Mir’s apparent reference is to a senior Army general holding a top position in the ‘establishment’ (read Deep State) of Pakistan

 Several international organizations like Reporters without borders and International Jurist associations have condemned Pakistan for suppressing the media. In fact #IstandwithyouHamidMir has been trending in Pakistani Twitter. Many Pakistanis are rallying in support of Mir.

Sethi has warned government that the backlash will be something like the one experience by the Musharraf regime from the lawyers when the government dismissed the Chief Justice and had to backtrack.