Hamid Mir
Encyclopedia
Hamid Mir is a Pakistan
i journalist
and editor
. He is also a news anchor, terrorism expert, and security analyst who regularly participates in international conferences. He is also known for his columns in Urdu
, Hindi
, Bengali
, and English newspapers and hosts a popular political talk show on Geo TV with the name of Capital Talk
. He was banned from TV by the military regime of General Pervez Musharraf in 2007. He was again banned by the Zardari-led Pakistan Peoples Party
's (PPP) government in June 2008.
, Punjab. He educated there and completed his Matric examination from University Laboratory School New Campus and Government Central Model School. He earned his intermediate degree from Government Science College and his Bachelor of Arts
(B.A) degree from Government College. He earned his Master of Arts
(M.A) in mass communications from the University of Punjab in 1989. He played cricket
but left the sport after the sudden death of his father.
who actively participated in the movement for the creation of Pakistan under the leadership of Muhammad Ali Jinnah
. Mir's father, the late Professor Waris Mir, was a columnist for Daily Jang and a critic of military dictator General Ziaul Haq, for which he was removed from the chairmanship of the Mass Communication Department of the University in the 1980s. Professor Waris Mir died on July 9, 1987 under mysterious circumstances at the age of 48; it has been alleged that he was poisoned by the then military regime. It was claimed the cause was a heart attack, contradicted by reports of frothing in his mouth. Mir entered the field of journalism immediately after the death of his father at a very young age.
Two brothers of Mir are also journalists. Amir Mir
works for The News International and Imran Mir works for Pakistan Television. A third brother, Adil Mir, is an industrialist. Hamid Mir's wife worked with Pakistan television and for a private television channel for many years. Hamid Mir has two children, Arafat Mir and Ayesha Mir. His children and wife were forced to spend at least three months outside Pakistan from May 2007 to July 2007 for security reasons.
(Lahore) in 1987 and worked there as sub-editor, reporter, feature writer and edition in charge. In 1994, he broke the submarines purchase scandal in Daily Jang. Some close friends of Asif Zardari (husband of then Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto
) were involved in that scandal, along with some Navy officials. Mir lost his job the day his article was published.
In 1996, Mir became the editor of the Daily Pakistan
in Islamabad
, 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 the Daily Pakistan about the alleged corruption of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
. Also on December 25, 1997, he launched Daily Ausaf
(Islamabad) as founding editor.
Mir spent ten days in eastern Afghanistan, where he investigated the escape of Osama bin Ladin from Tora Bora
mountains in December 2001. Mir visited the caves of bin Ladin, where he spent time during the US bombing. Mir also disclosed that it was US-backed Northern Alliance leader Hazrat Ali who provided safe passage to bin Ladin after getting a huge bribe.
In 2002, Mir joined GEO TV
as the Northern Region editor. Since November 2002, he has hosted GEO TV's Capital Talk
, a political talk show
in which top Pakistani politician
s from the government and opposition have appeared. He is currently writing a biography of Osama bin Ladin, as well as a weekly column in Daily Jang.
Other international figures interviewed by him include Condoleezza Rice
, Tony Blair
and L K Advani. Mir was arrested by Hezbullah in Beirut during Israel-Lebanon war in July 2006 while trying to cover the scenes of Israeli jets bombing on Beirut, but was later set free after Hezbullah was assured that he was not an Israeli spy.
On March 16, 2007, during live coverage of the lawyers' protest against the suspension of the then Chief Justice of Supreme Court Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry
, Mir was attacked by police at his Islamabad office. Later the then President, Pervez Musharraf apologized to Mir in his live TV show Capital Talk within few hours of the attack. Mir was banned by General Pervez Musharraf in November 2007 for four months on Geo News network. Mir came on roads after the ban and organized street shows. He became an international figure after staging shows on the roads, gathering huge crowds. The Washington Post published a front-page article on his show on the roads. He was again banned by the government of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in June 2008 for a few days on Geo News. His investigative documentary on the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto aired on Geo TV on December 23, 2008, and created considerable controversy in Pakistan.
Mir became a voice of peace and objective journalism during the India-Pakistan tension created after the Mumbai attacks in November 2008. Der Spiegel
declared him the most popular journalist in Pakistan.
Mir has participated in many international seminars and conferences on terrorism. He appears regularly on CNN, BBC and many Indian channels as a security analyst. Mir claimed in an interview with independent online news source CanadianFreePress.com—that Al-Qaeda
had acquired three so called 'suitcase nuke
s' from Russia
, and had successfully smuggled them to Europe
. Mir alleges these weapons have been in the possession of Al-Qaeda since long before the 9/11 terror attacks in New York
and Washington, D.C.
, and that they were originally intended to be targeted against London
, Paris
and Los Angeles
.
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 bomb
s'.
In May 2010 an audio tape of a conversation between Mir and the 2nd in command of Hakimullah Mehsud
surfaced. In the tape they discussed then-kidnapped Khalid Khawaja
with Mir urging that he be further
interrogated by his Taliban-linked captors. Khawaja was later killed by his captors. Rashed Rahman
, editor of the English-language Daily 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.". Mir has denied the authenticity of the tape "I never said these things to these people. This is a concocted tape, [..] They took my voice, sampled it and manufactured this conspiracy against me."
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 pointed out that some of the Hamas leaders were educated in Pakistani universities, and that many of them were part of the Afghan Jihad against former Soviet Union
, and close to Dr. Abdullah Azzam who was also a mentor of Osama bin Ladin in early 80's.
At the same time, Mir states that the Hamas leaders don't want to mix their identity with Taliban or al-Qaeda, and "oppose all those who are bombing girl schools". Mir states that unlike the Taliban, Hamas never attacked girl's schools even once in last 22 years of its creation. The biggest difference between Taliban and Hamas, according to Mir, is that Hamas believe in democracy, while Taliban have no faith in democracy.
According to some analysts, Mir always propagated the agenda of Western forces. Zaid Hamid, founder of Brass Tacks, called him a CIA agent on an ABN Chicago Radio talk show.
Mir has publicly stated that certain people in Pakistan have claimed that he is an Indian Agent. He commented about the response of people on one of his programs in which he invited a peace activist Dr.Pervez Hoodhbhoy: “There was an outcry next day in sections of Pakistan’s Urdu press that two Indian agents were sitting on Geo TV,”
Former FBI official, Paul Williams, accused Mir of being dishonest: "He has back-pedaled on statements before. This guy is capable of mendacity" Williams is currently being sued by McMaster University
for upwards of $2-Million, as a result of his claims that Islamic terrorists managed to steal 180 lbs of unspecified nuclear material from the McMaster Nuclear Reactor. The University has extracted an apology from the publisher of Dunces of Doomsday, WND Books/Cumberland House Publishing, who now say that statements made in Williams' book about the theft are "without basis in fact."
Some people say that he is too hard on the US. Recently he treated Pakistani Information Minister very roughly in his show on the US drone attacks.
He visited United States in April 2009 to deliver special lectures and talks in universities and think tanks. During this visit, he criticized the US policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He proposed some long- and short-term solutions for combating terrorism in Asia Society, New York.
The US Ambassador in Pakistan wrote a letter to the Geo TV management in September 2009 complaining about Mir.
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
i journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and editor
Literary editor
A literary editor is an editor in a newspaper, magazine or similar publication who deals with aspects concerning literature and books, especially reviews. A literary editor may also help with editing books themselves, by providing services such as proof reading, copy-editing, and literary...
. He is also a news anchor, terrorism expert, and security analyst who regularly participates in international conferences. He is also known for his columns in Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
, Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
, Bengali
Bengali people
The Bengali people are an ethnic community native to the historic region of Bengal in South Asia. They speak Bengali , which is an Indo-Aryan language of the eastern Indian subcontinent, evolved from the Magadhi Prakrit and Sanskrit languages. In their native language, they are referred to as বাঙালী...
, and English newspapers and hosts a popular political talk show on Geo TV with the name of Capital Talk
Capital Talk
Capital Talk is a popular current events debate television program hosted by Hamid Mir that airs on GEO News.From its website: As Pakistan is a country where with advent of new day we see a new political development so it brings into forefront those political developments in such a manner so that...
. He was banned from TV by the military regime of General Pervez Musharraf in 2007. He was again banned by the Zardari-led Pakistan Peoples Party
Pakistan Peoples Party
The Pakistan Peoples Party , is a democratic socialist political party in Pakistan affiliated with Socialist International. Pakistan People's Party is the largest political party of Pakistan...
's (PPP) government in June 2008.
Biography
Mir was born on July 23,1966 in LahoreLahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
, Punjab. He educated there and completed his Matric examination from University Laboratory School New Campus and Government Central Model School. He earned his intermediate degree from Government Science College and his Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
(B.A) degree from Government College. He earned his Master of Arts
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
(M.A) in mass communications from the University of Punjab in 1989. He played cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
but left the sport after the sudden death of his father.
Family
Mir belongs to a literary and journalistic family. His grandfather Mir Abdul Aziz was a famous poet in Urdu, Persian, and Punjabi in SialkotSialkot
Sialkot is a city in Pakistan situated in the north-east of the Punjab province at the foothills of snow-covered peaks of Kashmir near the Chenab river. It is the capital of Sialkot District. The city is about north-west of Lahore and only a few kilometers from Indian-controlled Jammu.The...
who actively participated in the movement for the creation of Pakistan under the leadership of Muhammad Ali Jinnah
Muhammad Ali Jinnah
Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a Muslim lawyer, politician, statesman and the founder of Pakistan. He is popularly and officially known in Pakistan as Quaid-e-Azam and Baba-e-Qaum ....
. Mir's father, the late Professor Waris Mir, was a columnist for Daily Jang and a critic of military dictator General Ziaul Haq, for which he was removed from the chairmanship of the Mass Communication Department of the University in the 1980s. Professor Waris Mir died on July 9, 1987 under mysterious circumstances at the age of 48; it has been alleged that he was poisoned by the then military regime. It was claimed the cause was a heart attack, contradicted by reports of frothing in his mouth. Mir entered the field of journalism immediately after the death of his father at a very young age.
Two brothers of Mir are also journalists. Amir Mir
Amir Mir
Amir Mir is a senior Pakistani journalist, known for his research work on Islamic militancy and terrorism in Pakistan. Currently affiliated with Pakistan’s leading English daily The News International as Deputy Editor/Editor Investigations in Lahore, he is closely following the Pakistani politics...
works for The News International and Imran Mir works for Pakistan Television. A third brother, Adil Mir, is an industrialist. Hamid Mir's wife worked with Pakistan television and for a private television channel for many years. Hamid Mir has two children, Arafat Mir and Ayesha Mir. His children and wife were forced to spend at least three months outside Pakistan from May 2007 to July 2007 for security reasons.
Journalistic career
Mir joined the Daily JangDaily Jang
The Daily Jang is an Urdu newspaper based in Pakistan. It is the oldest newspaper of Pakistan in continuous publication since its foundation in 1939. Its current Group Chief Executive & Editor-in-Chief is Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman....
(Lahore) in 1987 and worked there as sub-editor, reporter, feature writer and edition in charge. In 1994, he broke the submarines purchase scandal in Daily Jang. Some close friends of Asif Zardari (husband of then Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto
Benazir Bhutto
Benazir Bhutto was a democratic socialist who served as the 11th Prime Minister of Pakistan in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996....
) were involved in that scandal, along with some Navy officials. Mir lost his job the day his article was published.
In 1996, Mir became the editor of the Daily Pakistan
Daily Pakistan
Daily Pakistan is an Urdu daily newspaper in Pakistan. Mr. Mujib ur Rahman Shami is currently its chief editor and it has a circulation of over 500,000 copies per day. Daily Pakistan is currently published from Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad, Multan and Peshawar simultaneously. This Lahore-based daily...
in Islamabad
Islamabad
Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan and the tenth largest city in the country. Located within the Islamabad Capital Territory , the population of the city has grown from 100,000 in 1951 to 1.7 million in 2011...
, 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 the Daily Pakistan about the alleged corruption of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
Nawaz Sharif
Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif is a Pakistani conservative politician and steel magnate who served as 12th Prime Minister of Pakistan in two non-consecutive terms from November 1990 to July 1993, and from February 1997 to October 12, 1999...
. Also on December 25, 1997, he launched Daily Ausaf
Ausaf
Ausaf is an international Urdu daily newspaper which is being published simultaneously from Islamabad, Lahore, Multan, Muzaffarabad, Frankfurt and London. Its chief editor is Mehtab Khan Abbasi....
(Islamabad) as founding editor.
Mir spent ten days in eastern Afghanistan, where he investigated the escape of Osama bin Ladin from Tora Bora
Tora Bora
Tora Bora , known locally as Spīn Ghar , is a cave complex situated in the White Mountains of eastern Afghanistan, in the Pachir Wa Agam District of Nangarhar province, approximately west of the Khyber Pass and north of the border of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas in Pakistan...
mountains in December 2001. Mir visited the caves of bin Ladin, where he spent time during the US bombing. Mir also disclosed that it was US-backed Northern Alliance leader Hazrat Ali who provided safe passage to bin Ladin after getting a huge bribe.
In 2002, Mir joined GEO TV
Geo TV
Geo TV or Geo Television is a Pakistani television network, founded by Mr. Mir Shakil ur Rehman in May 2002 and owned by Independent Media Corporation. The channel began test transmission on 14 August 2002, with regular transmission beginning 1 October 2002...
as the Northern Region editor. Since November 2002, he has hosted GEO TV's Capital Talk
Capital Talk
Capital Talk is a popular current events debate television program hosted by Hamid Mir that airs on GEO News.From its website: As Pakistan is a country where with advent of new day we see a new political development so it brings into forefront those political developments in such a manner so that...
, a political talk show
Talk show
A talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....
in which top Pakistani politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
s from the government and opposition have appeared. He is currently writing a biography of Osama bin Ladin, as well as a weekly column in Daily Jang.
Other international figures interviewed by him include Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice is an American political scientist and diplomat. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and was the second person to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush...
, Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
and L K Advani. Mir was arrested by Hezbullah in Beirut during Israel-Lebanon war in July 2006 while trying to cover the scenes of Israeli jets bombing on Beirut, but was later set free after Hezbullah was assured that he was not an Israeli spy.
On March 16, 2007, during live coverage of the lawyers' protest against the suspension of the then Chief Justice of Supreme Court Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry
Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry
Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry is the current Chief Justice of Pakistan.He became chief justice of Pakistan's Supreme Court in 2005 and soon became not only a central figure in the nation's political struggles but an icon to the country's legal profession and others campaigning for the rule of law...
, Mir was attacked by police at his Islamabad office. Later the then President, Pervez Musharraf apologized to Mir in his live TV show Capital Talk within few hours of the attack. Mir was banned by General Pervez Musharraf in November 2007 for four months on Geo News network. Mir came on roads after the ban and organized street shows. He became an international figure after staging shows on the roads, gathering huge crowds. The Washington Post published a front-page article on his show on the roads. He was again banned by the government of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in June 2008 for a few days on Geo News. His investigative documentary on the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto aired on Geo TV on December 23, 2008, and created considerable controversy in Pakistan.
Mir became a voice of peace and objective journalism during the India-Pakistan tension created after the Mumbai attacks in November 2008. Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. It is one of Europe's largest publications of its kind, with a weekly circulation of more than one million.-Overview:...
declared him the most popular journalist in Pakistan.
Mir has participated in many international seminars and conferences on terrorism. He appears regularly on CNN, BBC and many Indian channels as a security analyst. Mir claimed in an interview with independent online news source CanadianFreePress.com—that Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
had acquired three so called 'suitcase nuke
Suitcase nuke
A suitcase nuke is a tactical nuclear weapon which uses, or is portable enough that it could use, a suitcase as its delivery method. Synonyms include suitcase bomb, backpack nuke, mini-nuke, pocket nuke and snuke....
s' from Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, and had successfully smuggled them to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. Mir alleges these weapons have been in the possession of Al-Qaeda since long before the 9/11 terror attacks in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, and that they were originally intended to be targeted against London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
.
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 bomb
Dirty bomb
A dirty bomb is a speculative radiological weapon that combines radioactive material with conventional explosives. The purpose of the weapon is to contaminate the area around the explosion with radioactive material, hence the attribute "dirty"....
s'.
In May 2010 an audio tape of a conversation between Mir and the 2nd in command of Hakimullah Mehsud
Hakimullah Mehsud
Hakimullah Mehsud , born c. 1979 as Jamshed Mehsud and also known as Zulfiqar Mehsud , is the amir of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan...
surfaced. In the tape they discussed then-kidnapped Khalid Khawaja
Khalid Khawaja
Squadron Leader Khalid Khawaja was a former Air Force officer, and the former Air Force's intelligence officer of the Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence agency....
with Mir urging that he be further
interrogated by his Taliban-linked captors. Khawaja was later killed by his captors. Rashed Rahman
Rashed Rahman
Rashed Rahman is an editor of one Pakistan's major English language newspapers, the Daily Times. He is a son of Justice S.A. Rehman, former Chief Justice of Pakistan's Supreme Court...
, editor of the English-language Daily 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.". Mir has denied the authenticity of the tape "I never said these things to these people. This is a concocted tape, [..] They took my voice, sampled it and manufactured this conspiracy against me."
Controversy
During his career he has come into conflict with the authorities and been banned or limited from reporting on several occasions:- In October 2005 he covered the relief work of Kashmiri militants in Pakistan administered Azad Kashmir after an earthquake. His journalistic work established the presence of militants in Kashmir, and the Musharraf regime threatened to ban him from TV.
- Mir opposed so-called peace agreements between Taliban and Army in FATA in 2005 and annoyed powerful generals. Then Pakistan Army spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan declared Mir a traitor on state-controlled Pakistan television in 2005.
- Mir visited Bajour tribal area in January 2006 after a US missile attack in Damadola village. He again proved that the US missiles killed only innocent children and women, not Al Qaeda militants.
- Mir started discussing the role of Pakistani intelligence agencies in his famous talk show in 2006, and the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority issued him a show cause notice for committing treason.
- Musharraf declared Hamid Mir a Taliban sympathizer after the emergency rule of 2007 and banned him from Geo TV for more than four months. In an interview with Monthly Newsline Karachi (December 2008 issue), Mir explained his differences with Musharraf. He claimed that actually he exposed the double games of secret agency ISI playing in the Red Mosque of Islamabad in a face to face meeting with the President. Mir presented some evidence that ISI was helping some militants who were creating law and order situation in the Capital. ISI turned against Mir after that meeting and propagated that Mir is a media face of Taliban. In fact Mir received threats from some militant groups when wrote investigative stories on Taliban.
Notable papers, awards and work
- Earned an All Pakistan Newspapers SocietyAll Pakistan Newspapers SocietyAll Pakistan Newspapers Society is the organization of the major Pakistani newspapers owners. Its election is held every year and three major groups of newspapers are the major players, and they are: Jang Group, Dawn Group and Nawa-i-Waqt Group. These groups are accused for bribing the smaller...
(APNS) award for best columnist (Urdu) for the years 1996,1997,and 1998. - Received the Maharishi Samman Award for Excellence in Journalism announced by Trust for Media Studies, in JodhpurJodhpurJodhpur , is the second largest city in the Indian state of Rajasthan. It is located west from the state capital, Jaipur and from the city of Ajmer. It was formerly the seat of a princely state of the same name, the capital of the kingdom known as Marwar...
, IndiaIndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
in March, 2005. - Awarded the Fatima JinnahFatima JinnahFatima Jinnah , was one of the figurative and pioneering woman figure in Pakistan Movement and was the younger sister of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. An active political figure in the movement for independence from the British Raj, she is commonly known in Pakistan as Khātūn-e...
Gold Medal from the Ministry of Women Development, Government of Pakistan for writing and speaking in support of women's rights, in August 2005. - Interviewed Osama Bin LadenOsama bin LadenOsama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
for the Daily PakistanDaily PakistanDaily Pakistan is an Urdu daily newspaper in Pakistan. Mr. Mujib ur Rahman Shami is currently its chief editor and it has a circulation of over 500,000 copies per day. Daily Pakistan is currently published from Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad, Multan and Peshawar simultaneously. This Lahore-based daily...
in 1997, for the Daily Ausaf in 1998, and for the Daily Dawn in 2001. The latter was the first interview after 9/11 by any journalist, and the BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
and CNNCNNCable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
declared it an international scoop. The Monthly Herald announced that interview as the scoop of the year in its annual issue of December 2001. - Author of a book on the political philosophy of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, published in 1990, which is still in print.
- On March 26, 2010, The foundation of South Asian Association for Regional CooperationSouth Asian Association for Regional CooperationThe South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation is an organisation of South Asian nations, founded in December 1985 by Ziaur Rahman and dedicated to economic, technological, social, and cultural development emphasising collective self-reliance. Its seven founding members are Bangladesh,...
Writers and Literature have nominated Mir for the SAARC Lifetime Achievement Award 2010.
Views on Hamas
In 2009, Mir compared the HamasHamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
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 pointed out that some of the Hamas leaders were educated in Pakistani universities, and that many of them were part of the Afghan Jihad against former Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, and close to Dr. Abdullah Azzam who was also a mentor of Osama bin Ladin in early 80's.
At the same time, Mir states that the Hamas leaders don't want to mix their identity with Taliban or al-Qaeda, and "oppose all those who are bombing girl schools". Mir states that unlike the Taliban, Hamas never attacked girl's schools even once in last 22 years of its creation. The biggest difference between Taliban and Hamas, according to Mir, is that Hamas believe in democracy, while Taliban have no faith in democracy.
Criticism
Mir has been repeatedly accused of being pro-Taliban, while some known pro-Taliban personalities accuse him of being a CIA agent.According to some analysts, Mir always propagated the agenda of Western forces. Zaid Hamid, founder of Brass Tacks, called him a CIA agent on an ABN Chicago Radio talk show.
Mir has publicly stated that certain people in Pakistan have claimed that he is an Indian Agent. He commented about the response of people on one of his programs in which he invited a peace activist Dr.Pervez Hoodhbhoy: “There was an outcry next day in sections of Pakistan’s Urdu press that two Indian agents were sitting on Geo TV,”
Former FBI official, Paul Williams, accused Mir of being dishonest: "He has back-pedaled on statements before. This guy is capable of mendacity" Williams is currently being sued by McMaster University
McMaster University
McMaster University is a public research university whose main campus is located in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land in the residential neighbourhood of Westdale, adjacent to Hamilton's Royal Botanical Gardens...
for upwards of $2-Million, as a result of his claims that Islamic terrorists managed to steal 180 lbs of unspecified nuclear material from the McMaster Nuclear Reactor. The University has extracted an apology from the publisher of Dunces of Doomsday, WND Books/Cumberland House Publishing, who now say that statements made in Williams' book about the theft are "without basis in fact."
Some people say that he is too hard on the US. Recently he treated Pakistani Information Minister very roughly in his show on the US drone attacks.
He visited United States in April 2009 to deliver special lectures and talks in universities and think tanks. During this visit, he criticized the US policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He proposed some long- and short-term solutions for combating terrorism in Asia Society, New York.
The US Ambassador in Pakistan wrote a letter to the Geo TV management in September 2009 complaining about Mir.
External links
- Brief profile on CNN
- British Magazine Prospect about Hamid Mir http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=10921&sent=1
- Archive of Capital Talk scripts in Urdu
- facebook.com/capitaltalk
- Hamid Mir interview with famous Indian Magazine http://www.tehelka.com/story_main49.asp?filename=Ne210511India.asp
- Hamid Mir Urdu Columns Online from Jang Newspaper