Hamid Mir

File:Mirs.JPG

Mr. Hamid Mir is a well known Pakistani journalist who interviewed Osama bin Ladin after 9/11 in November 2001 for Daily Dawn. He is writting a biography of bin Ladin. He is famous for his Urdu columns and a talk show on Geo TV. Mr. Hamid Mir is a terrorism and security expert. He has delivered lectures on many international forums and in different universities on terrorism and Islam.He spent ten days in the Eastern part of Afghanistan recently and investigated the great escape of Osama bin Ladin from Tora Bora mountains in December 2001.He interviewed Afghan Interior Ministry officials who accepted first time that Osama escaped from Tora Bora after bribing the warlords who were hired by the US forces to hunt down him.Afghan Interior Minister Ali Ahmid Jalali was forced to resign when the investgative documentry of Hamid Mir was aired on GEO TV in September 2005. http://jang-group.com/thenews/sep2005-daily/14-09-2005/main/main6.htm He is one of the most controvertial personalities of Pakistan. He lost his job twice on government pressures. He became controversial in 1994 when he broke the submarines purchase scandle in Daily Jang. Some close friends of Asif Zardari (husband of then Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto) were involved in that scandle along with some Navy officials. Hamid Mir lost his job the day his article was published about that scandle. Then Naval Chief Admiral Mansoor was arrested and punished in the same scandle after few years. Hamid Mir lost his job again in 1997 when he wrote an article in Daily Pakistan about the alleged curruption of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. He was again in the international press after his famous interview with bin Ladin in November 2001. That was his third interview with bin Ladin. He is one of the few international journalists who covered the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Chechnya, Sri Lanka and Bosnia.

Biographical information

• Name: Hamid Mir
• Date of Birth: 23-07-1966
• Place of Birth: Lahore
• Education: M.A Mass Communications, University of The Punjab, Lahore, (1987-89)

Experience in journalism

- Currently performing duties in Geo TV as Bureau Chief of Islamabad and Editor Northern Region.Geo TV http://www.geo.tv is owned by Jang Group, which is Pakistan’s biggest newspaper group.

-Writing a weekly column in Daily Jang http://www.jang.net/editorial/show_article.aspx?id=Hairwnbmsuk

(Biggest International Urdu newspaper publishing from London, Karachi, Lahore, Quetta, Multan and Rawalpindi/Islamabad). Writing another column in Weekly Akhbar-e-Jahan, Karachi (Worlds biggest Urdu Weekly)  http://www.akhbar-e-jehan.com/home/index.php
And also Writing for The News International, http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/sep2004-daily/07-09-2004/main/main8.htm
English daily also owned by Jang Group.

-Joined Daily Jang Lahore in 1987 and worked there till 1994 as Sub-Editor, Reporter, Feature Writer and Edition In charge.

-Joined Daily Pakistan Lahore in 1994 as columnist and Special Correspondent.

-Joined Daily Pakistan Islamabad, in 1996 as the youngest editor of any national Urdu newspaper in the history of Pakistani journalism at the age of 30.

-Joined Daily Ausaf Islamabad as Founding Editor in 1997.

-Contributed weekly column for” The Friday Times” from 2000 to 2002 and for weekly “The Independent” from2002 to 2003.

-Contributed columns for “The Times of India”, “Outlook, Delhi” “The Week, India”, “Dainik Bhaskar”(Biggest Hindi Newspaper of India) and “Rediff.com” http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/sep/17guest.htm.

-Joined GEO TV as Editor Northern Region in 2002.

-Hosting Capital Talk for GEO TV from November 2002 and recorded more than 300 episodes. It’s a twice a week political talk show in which all the top Pakistani politicians from the government and opposition have appeared. http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/jan2005-daily/12-01-2005/main/main1.htm http://www.rediff.com/news/2005/jan/11mush.htm.

-Many Pakistani and Foreign newspapers have declared that Capital Talk is one of the most popular TV programs in the region. http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/jul2003-weekly/nos-13-07-2003/pol1.htm http://www.marxist.com/Asia/lk_tv_interview.html

-Only Pakistani journalist who have the unique experience of covering the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, http://www.nazioneindiana.com/2005/02/25/behind-giuliana-sgrena%E2%80%99s-kidnapping-interview-with-hamid-mir/

Bosnia, Sri Lanka (Jafna) and Chechnya, http://inhome.rediff.com/news/2004/sep/08spec1.htm

. He also visited the US Air Craft Carrier USS Nimitz in the Arabian Sea in July 2005 and watched the flight operations on the ship. http://www.why-war.com/news/author.php?name=Hamid+Mir

Major Achievements -Got All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) award (most prestigious journalistic award in Pakistan) of best columnist (Urdu) for the year of 1996,1997,and 1998.

-Got Maharishi Samman Award 2005(Excellence in Journalism) announced by Trust for Media Studies in Jodhpur in March 2005 http://www.indiadaily.com/breaking_news/28417.asp. Award was given to Hamid Mir by Dr.Naseem Bhattia, Vice Chanceller of Jai Narayan Vyas University, Jodhpur,India.

-Hamid Mir was awarded Fatima Jinnah Gold Medal from the Ministry of Women Development, Government of Pakistan for writing and speaking for the women rights in August 2005.

-Interviewed Israeli Foreign Minister Shamon Peres in 1994 for Daily Jang in Switzerland. It was the first ever interview from any high Israeli official to any Pakistani Journalist.

-Interviewed Indian Prime Minister Narasema Rao in Columbia, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in New York and South African President Nelson Mandela in New Zeland in 1995. Interviewed Chinese Prime Minister Zhou Rangchi in Beijing 1999. Interviewed Indian Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani in 2001 In Delhi, interviewed him again in 2005 in Islamabad http://www.rediff.com/news/2005/jun/06inter1.htm

And interviewed Indian foreign Minster Yashwant Senha in November 2003 in Delhi.Yashwant Senha broke the story that Vajpaee would participate in the SAARC Summit to be held in January 2004.

-Interviewed Osama Bin Ladin for Daily Pakistan in 1997,for Daily Ausaf in 1998 and for Daily Dawn in 2001 http://www.robert-fisk.com/usama_interview_hamid_mir_ausaf.htm Third interview was the first one after 9/11 to any journalist and BBC and CNN declared it an international scoop. Monthly Herald announced that interview as the scoop of the year in its annual issue of December 2001. http://www.maldivesculture.com/maldives_osama_bin_laden.html

-Covered 50th Anniversary of United Nations in 1995(New York) Common Wealth Conference in 1995(New Zeland) Non Aligned Conference in 1995 (Columbia), SAARC Conference in 1998(Colombo), D-8 Conference in Ankara, 1998.India Pakistan talks in Agra 2001, SAARC conference in January 2004,Presidential Election in Afghanistan in October 2004.

-Interviewed President General Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Ex Prime Ministers Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif, Mir Zafarullah Jamali, US Secretary of State Dr.Condoleezza Rice http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2005/43605.htm, Ex US Secretary of State Mr. Colin Powel http://www.state.gov/secretary/former/powell/remarks/30558.htm , General Richard B.Myers, US Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff http://www.state.gov/p/sa/rls/rm/22922.htm, and Richard Armitage, US ex deputy Secretary of State, President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai and Foreign Minister Dr. Abdullah Abdullah for GEO TV.

-Participated in CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Show http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0412/05/le.01.html, Larry King Show (twice) http://www.edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0111/12/lkl.00.html, BBC’s Simpson’s World and dozens of other CNN, BBC, FOX, NBC, ABC, http://www.abc.net.au/tv/enoughrope/transcripts/s1071804.htmCBS, ZEE, AAJ TAK TV, STAR TV and NDTV programmers as an expert on South Asian politics and International Terrorism.

-Presented paper on “Media, Conflict and Resolution” in International Media Conference held in Bonn, Germany in April 2002. http://www.inwent.org/ef-texte/media/mir.htm

-Presented a paper in an International Seminar on “Islam, democracy and Terrorism” at University of Western Australia, Perth in August 2004.

-Presented paper in an International conference on Al Qaeda organized in US Senate (Washington) in December 2004. http://www.rediff.com/news/2004/dec/23guest.htm

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/000246.html

-Presented a paper on “Media, Imperialism and Third World” at a Seminar organized by Jodhpur Press Club, Rajisthan, India in March 2005.

-Author of a book on the political philosophy of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto written in Urdu and published by Jang Publishers.Bhutto was Pakistan’s first elected prime minister hanged by military in 1979.The main thrust of the book was about some of his political predictions. He predicted in 1967 that Pakistan would break, he predicted in 1978 in Jail that Soviet Union will break. He predicted that General Zia will not live beyond 1989 and he Zia was killed in 1988.This book was first published in 1990 and still available in market.

-Mr.Hamid Mir is also writing a biography of Osama bin Ladin.It was started in 1998 but is delayed due to the rapid changes in international situation. This book will come out in 2005.