Daily Times

The attack on veteran journalist Ayaz Amir in Lahore on Friday night, just as he left the premises of a TV channel, is not just condemnable in the strongest terms but also demands an immediate investigation that will lead to exemplary punishment for its perpetrators. That this happened one day after he bitterly, and pretty openly, criticized everybody for the present state of affairs, including the powerful military establishment as well as former PM Imran Khan, makes it obvious that somebody tried to teach Amir a lesson. And that, no doubt, is that he and others like him should keep their smart ideas to themselves in future.

It’s such things that make this country one of the most dangerous in the whole world for working journalists. When they are not being harassed, hunted down or kidnapped, they are being beaten in broad daylight, or evening as in this case, for everybody to see and get the message, so to speak. This might be the first time somebody has actually slapped Ayaz Amir around or torn his clothes, but he has been around long enough to know everything about how and why such things happen, what they are aimed at, and how exactly he should respond.

No surprise, then, that he’s vowed to “keep speaking the truth”, as he sees it at least. And now that this incident has provoked the typical round of condemnation from all around, it’s going to be very important to see it through. It is, therefore, the responsibility of the government of Punjab, more than anybody else, to make sure that the investigation is transparent and swift, and also that a it ends with a very good lesson for all parties concerned. *