Geo TV
premeditated assault on ISI
Asif Haroon Raja
On April 19, 2014, Geo TV anchor and senior journalist
Hamid Mir was attacked by unknown assailant (s) in Karachi when he was
travelling in a car from the airport to Geo office. Out of 12 bullets fired,
six bullets pierced his abdomen and legs. The driver who remained unscathed
drove him to the hospital where he is currently under treatment and reportedly
is out of danger. Such gory attacks by unidentified terrorists are a common
phenomenon in Karachi where daily score of the target killers ranges from 6-12.
Despite Rangers-Police combined targeted operation since last September, the
gory practice has not been controlled. The dastardly attack on Hamid Mir is
condemnable and we pray for his early recovery.
While the attack on Hamid Mir was undoubtedly
reprehensible, the unethical reaction of Geo TV was more shameful. Ironically,
the Geo News channel’s onslaught began with a vengeance within hours of the
incident when even on-spot inspection of the site and preliminary investigation
had not been carried out and FIR was not registered. It seemed as if the TV
channel was already waiting in readiness to spring into action and start a
willful malicious media campaign against the DG ISI, ISI as an institution and
the Army. What was detestable was that the photo of DG ISI was repeatedly
flashed during the over 8-hour program aired without a break, indirectly
holding him responsible for the attack. Ansar Abbasi in his exuberance demanded
immediate resignation of DG ISI.
Even a layman could make out that the program aired by
Geo TV had been stage-managed and pre-meditated with the sole objective of
tarnishing the image of DG ISI and ISI. The hidden purpose behind the
vilification program was to create a gulf between the armed forces and the
people of Pakistan in general and the government and the defence establishment
in particular. The whole lot of tutored anchors trained their guns on the ISI
and based their arguments on the statement of the brother of Hamid Mir who
stated soon after the incident that Hamid had secretly expressed his fears
within his family members and close friends and his employer that he was
receiving threats from ISI and in case he was murdered, DG ISI Lt Gen Zaheerul
Islam would be responsible. Surprisingly, none of the analysts bothered to
consider any other possibility.
Neither Hamid nor any of his family member or his
organization deemed it fit to register an FIR, or even a complaint that he was
facing life threat. If he was facing life threats, how come he was moving
around so freely and boldly without a guard? Why did he continue to remain in
an offensive mode and repeatedly put the blame of missing persons on
intelligence agencies despite the threats? His body language and facial
expressions never indicated any signs of stress. Some say, the time bomb found
strapped under his car last year was a ploy to increase his popularity rating
and ISI threat was also played up to enhance his rating. How come Hamid Mir and
his TV channel came in bad books and felt threatened and none else? It meant
something was wrong somewhere. Is it not true that the Geo in its blind urge to
make big money has crossed the red lines and all limits of decency?
Over a period of time, Geo TV has earned the reputation
of being more of an Indian channel than a Pakistani channel promoting Indian
themes/ agenda and maintaining an anti-Islam and anti-Pakistan stance. As
opposed to spiteful role of Indian media against Pakistan, Geo TV stance
towards India has always been soft and friendly. Jang Group owned by Mir
Shakil-ur Rahman co-hosts highly controversial Aman-ki-Asha program with India
which is RAW funded. Ansar Abbasi, one of the journalists of Geo News has
recently come out with a bizarre revelation that Aman-ki-Asha is ISI funded.
Geo TV and ‘The News/Jang’ newspapers are known for promoting secularism,
creating rifts between the institutions and sowing seeds of doubts/ misgivings
over settled issues like ‘Two-nation’ theory, Objectives Resolution, ideology
of Pakistan, and making Quaid-e-Azam controversial by projecting him as a
secular.
While Geo TV glamorizes Hamid Mir, he is looked down
upon by many for his anti-Army/ISI/FC stance, for espousing the cause of
separatists wanting to make Baluchistan independent, overplaying missing
persons issue and for his pro-India posture. In early 2009, while the then
government was denying that Ajmal Kasab, falsely implicated by India in Mumbai
attacks case in November 2008, was a Pakistani, Hamid Mir took the Geo team to
a village in Punjab and broke the story that Kasab was a Pakistani born and
brought up in village Faridkot. He sold the story despite the villagers showing
their ignorance about Kasab. That way he strengthened India’s handle to beat
Pakistan with.
He is the one who blamed the ISI for burning down Ziarat
Residency and would have kept spitting venom had BLA not claimed
responsibility. Reportedly, he had poisoned the ears of Asian Tigers, a group
affiliated with TTP who had taken late Col retired Sultan Amir Tarar, popularly
known as Col Imam and Squadron Leader retired Khalid Khawaja hostage in March
2010. Based on the information given by Hamid Mir on a phone that Khawaja was
an ISI agent and unreliable, the captors killed both of them in January 2011.
ISI bashing by the Geo TV was fully capitalized by the
Indian media as well as the British media and the trio worked in tandem to
discredit ISI. Let it be known that the ISI is a world famed organization which
is second to none and its effectiveness has been acknowledged even by the
traditional adversaries. Since its birth in mid 1950s, it has stood as a guard
against inimical forces striving to harm Pakistan. It acts as the first line of
defence for the armed forces and has valiantly kept the outreach of
anti-Pakistan CIA-RAW-MI-6-RAAM-Mosad-BND nexus at bay since 2002 and is also
supporting the security forces fighting the war in the northwest and separatist
movement in the south zealously. In the process, large numbers of its members
have lost their lives at the hands of foreign paid saboteurs.
The Army and ISI are defending the motherland stretching
from the peaks of Siachin in the north to the deserts of Sindh and barren hills
of Balochistan in the south under extremely adverse conditions. Under
extraordinary stressful conditions when the very existence of the country is
under grave threat, putting the premier institutions faced with an existential
threat under further stress and strain through slanderous media campaign is
highly undesirable.
The adversaries of Pakistan consider the armed forces
and the ISI as the only bottlenecks in their way to accomplish their sinister
designs against Pakistan. The US has invested $ 60 million to buy the loyalties
of Pak media while India and Israel too have invested heavy amounts to
influence leading TV channels and newspapers. The Christian Science Monitor
dated September 2, 2011 reported that two journalists belonging to ‘Express News’
and ‘Dunya News’ filing reports back home from Washington drew their salaries
from the US State Department funding through a nonprofit intermediary. Despite
their best efforts they have been unable to weaken the trunk of these two
organizations.
Apart from demonizing Islam and secularizing the society
through media, the other major task of paid Pakistani journalists, anchors and
pseudo intellectuals is to build perceptions and create hatred against the Army
and ISI. The invisible hand of sabotage and subversion has caused incalculable
damage to the fabric of the country. The agents of subversion are busy
polluting the minds of the people and weakening the country under a
well-defined agenda. Unfortunately, a section of media is playing into the
hands of our adversaries of Pakistan for the sake of material benefits.
It is indeed surprising that the head of ISI was
callously attacked by the media barons for 8 hours and the government as well
as PEMRA remained mum and paralyzed. Other TV channels acted more responsibly.
Response of civil society is very encouraging. I have received dozens of
messages condemning Geo TV. There are wide calls to block Geo TV for defaming
ISI. A petition has been filed in a law court seeking registration of treason
case against Jang & Geo Group and his owner Mir Shakilur Rahman and Amir
Ali, brother of Hamid Mir.
Being the member of Executive Committee of PESS headed
by Lt Gen Hamid Gul, I am in a position to feel the pulse of well over 2.5
million retired officers, JCOs, NCOs and men. They all are highly perturbed and
resentful over the perverse role of media and inaction of the government in
taking to task the black sheep within media and controlling the unruly and undisciplined
media indulging in yellow journalism. Government’s inaction has given rise to
suspicions about its intentions and motives.
A judicial commission has been established to probe the
incident and come out with its findings. Till the finalization of the report by
the Commission, all concerned parties should exercise restraint and refrain
from drawing hasty conclusions. PEMRA should come out of its hibernation and
start managing the media houses and guide them that instead of indulging in
sensationalism, defamation and spreading despondency, they should play a
constructive role in bridging divides within the society and promoting harmony
between the State institutions.
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