Relevance of Amir Mir’s fight in India

While Indian journalists will have to resist the Centre’s attempts to curb their freedom

The story of journalist Amir Mir's resistance to the Pakistani Establishment needs to be narrated, for its theme is relevant to India as well: Free speech never comes free of cost. I came to know Amir in my years at Outlook magazine, for which he would file stories from Lahore on the violent fantasies of jihadis and their links to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

His courage awed Outlook. For instance, in May 2006, Amir drove from Lahore to Islamabad to receive the prestigious All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) award for an investigative story he had done. On reaching the venue, he was told President General Pervez Musharraf would felicitate him. Amir remonstrated: he did not want to be honoured by the man who had subverted democracy. Pressed by APNS officials, he said he could take the award but also call Musharraf a "usurper" to his face. Amir was not called to the dais.

In 2003, his car was set on fire, soon after Musharraf had told editors at an iftaar party that Amir was an Indian agent. The general wondered: Why else would Amir write a piece for Outlook disclosing the whereabouts of the fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim? This sounds chillingly similar to journalist Rana Ayub's recent disclosure that she had been interrogated by three investigating agencies over three months about her "connections with international editors and publications."

Amir Mir insists his struggle is to safeguard Pakistan's interests and its people

In April 2014, assailants pumped six bullets into Amir's elder brother and celebrated Geo News TV anchor, Hamid Mir. Days before, Hamid had told Amir to name the ISI as the culprit in case he was assassinated. Amir did this on Geo News, for which its licence was suspended. Hamid survived and Geo was back on air three months later. But The News, the daily which the Jang Group owns along with Geo News, took to binning Amir's stories. He quit.

Finding the going tough at yet another pasture, Amir started, in 2019, a YouTube channel, Googly News TV. Over the next two years, he received four notices from the Cyber Crime branch of the Federal Investigative Agency (FIA), the Pakistan government's paw for harassing political opponents. Each of those notices accused Amir of maligning the Army/ISI, the judiciary, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, and other state institutions.

Amir's reply to each of the four notices was more or less similar: "Accusing me of working against the interests of Pakistan is simply rubbish." He would say he intended continuing his struggle to safeguard Pakistan's interests and its people.

The Establishment hit back on the morning of August 7. Two vehicles blocked Amir's car from the front, another from the rear. Amir was whisked away to the FIA office in Lahore's Gulberg locality. Also present there was YouTube blogger Imran Shafqat, who too had been arrested. After Amir had been grilled by two junior officers, FIA Cyber Crime Director Babar Bakht walked in. By then, a gaggle of journalists had descended upon the FIA office.

Bakht offered a deal to Amir - give an undertaking that he would cease maligning Pakistan's institutions and walk out a free man. Amir refused. Bakht continued to cajole him, their conversation punctuated by telephone calls. To each caller, Bakht informed that Amir was unwilling to furnish the undertaking demanded of him.

Around 8 pm, Amir was let off. An hour later, the FIA issued a statement saying they were in the process of collecting fresh evidence against Amir and Shafqat for maligning Pakistan. This prompted Amir and four other journalists to petition the Supreme Court for protection under Article 184 (3), which defines its original jurisdiction.

The petition said media outlets had sacked them under the pressure of those who had the powers to shut down their operations. To earn a livelihood, they started YouTube channels. Yet, the state has persisted in harassing them. Their fundamental rights have been infringed, and they could not follow the Islamic injunction to Muslims to speak truth to an unjust ruler.

On August 20, a two-member bench headed by Qazi Faez Isa issued notices to the FIA and interior ministry officials. Curiously, the Acting Chief Justice constituted a five-member bench to decide whether a petition under Art 184 (3) could be heard in the absence of the Chief Justice, who was away in America. The bench ruled that the Chief Justice's consent was necessary. It recalled Isa's order and constituted a three-member bench to hear the journalists' petition.

Amir filed an application withdrawing his petition. His application read: "I have reasons to believe that I will not be able to get justice because the ‘invisible elements'… [in] the FIA… are far more powerful than those who are supposed to provide justice and safeguard the fundamental rights of Pakistani citizens." Will the Supreme Court be shamed into action?

Amir's story shows Indian journalists will have to resist the Modi government's attempts to curb their freedom. Media-owners have been disappointing on this count. For instance, The Asian Age refused to publish the pugnacious TV anchor Karan Thapar's column only because he had referred to the violence against Muslims in Jammu during Partition. Separated in 1947, Indian and Pakistani leaders are united in their contempt for free speech.

The writer is a senior journalist

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