The
recent nonlethal light pistol assault on the vehicle carrying senior journalist
and TV interviewer Hamid Mir near Karachi airport seems to have raised a storm
in a teacup. Thank God he suffered minor bullet wounds and is fast recovering,
but it is not yet established whether Mr. Mir was the intended victim or it was
a case of mistaken identity. The car in which he was travelling is a common
model and color. The choice of weapon was definitely unprofessional if the
intention was to kill someone in a moving vehicle. Yet there was an instant outrageous
allegation suggesting that the ISI chief had attempted to have him murdered.
This is bad journalism. It appears that the affairs of Geo TV are run entirely
by young and impulsive announcers without any editorial review or management
control. If they had suspicion of ISI men being involved in the case, Mr. Mir
and Geo TV should have complained to the ISI chief and demanded action rather
than committing an act that could be branded as unpatriotic. The owners of Geo TV should start paying also
attention to matters other than ad revenues.
As
for the public response to the case, it shows that the people of Pakistan are
sick and tired of ‘spyocracy’ – an affliction also suffered by other
democracies such as India, USA, Britain, Israel etc. due to exaggerated threat
perception. The political leaders of these countries need to join heads to find
ways to reduce the threat perceptions hence interference by spy agencies.
