| Ansar Abbasi al-Hashmi (انصار عباسی) | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 12, 1965 |
| Education | Masters in Journalism and Broadcasting |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Family | Abbasi al-Hashmi |
| Religious belief(s) | Islam |
| Notable credit(s) | Editor The News International |
Ansar Abbasi al_Hashmi (Urdu: انصار عباسی) is an investigative editor for one of the leading newspapers from Pakistan, The News International.
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Abbasi was born in Murree and did his early education in his native village. Abbasi did his matriculation at Sir Syed School Rawalpindi. He then joined Government College Asghar Mall from where he completed his Intermediate and later graduated with a ‘Bachelors in Arts’ degree from the same college. He did his Masters at Balochistan University, Quetta. He later earned another Masters degree from Goldsmiths College, University of London.[1] His research thesis was on child labor.
After Masters in Mass Communication, Abbasi started his career as a professional journalist in 1991. His first stint was with an English language daily, The Democrat. Later, he worked for two months at Pakistan Times, before eventually joining The News International, of which he is now an editor.
Ansar Abbasi was among the first to bring forth allegations against Chief Justice Iftikhar Choudhray for gross misconduct in 2002, accusing him for admitting his son Dr. Arsalan to the Federal Investigation Agency undermining all merits.[2] Primarily based on this allegation the establishment moved a reference to Supreme Judicial Council against Chief Justice Iftikhar Choudhry.
Abbasi has published work critical of the regime of former President Pervez Musharraf accusing him of building a multi-million rupee residence at Chak Shehzad, equipped with utilities at much cheaper rates with differential subsidized by the government.[3]
He was critical of the former general for removing the Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Choudhry and submitting his case to the Supreme Judicial Council.[4]
In November 2008, Abbasi published a story on the award of acres of military land worth millions of rupees to the family members of the leader of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, Maulana Fazl ur Rehman. Abbasi alleged that the regime of the then president General Pervez Musharraf attempted to buy off Maulana's opposition to the General's assumption of two public offices at a time.[5] The issue was silenced when Maulana Fazl ur Rahman publicly questioned how the multi-billion empire of Geo/Jang Group grew from a single room.
"Our Special Daughters", an investigative report by Ansar Abbasi in Daily News, found out that Justice Dogar's daughter Farah Hameed Dogar's examination paper for F.Sc. were reassessed in violation of a previous Supreme Court ruling.[6] While the results of 201 candidates were revised, only for her were the examination papers re-marked and the numbers increased. In the other 200 cases, only errors in adding the total marks were corrected.[7] The case later went on to the parliamentary committee for education.[8]
Abbasi is alleged to have received death threats for which he blamed different groups, including those associated with the ruling coalition. His claims first appeared in The News on December 25, 2008.
Umer Cheema, an investigative reporter, was abducted and tortured for six hours by a group of unidentified men. During his abduction, Cheema was warned to stop reporting against the government. The reporter also claimed one of the abductors saying if the criticisms against the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party kept going, Ansar Abbasi would be targeted next.[9] However, it is widely thought that Umer Cheema abduction is done by military agencies as his main focus was criticizing the army.
Ansar Abbasi has always been vocal about the central role of Religion in his life and career. Ansar Abbasi claims to be a pious Muslim and has been seen to have deep rooted conservative views. Such views were made controversially public during 2009 when a video of a the Flogging of a Swat Girl was released [10]. He has publicly voiced Anti-Western 'standards' and morals, and calls for Pakistan to go back to the ways of Islam during the life of Prophet Muhammed (SAW) [11]. During the Swat Girl incident Ansar Abbasi stated that he did not find anything to be wrong with the idea of flogging even on a girl, and that is was appropriate punishment, and only due to the westernisation of Pakistan are people voicing complaints against it, what he calls "Liberl Facists" [12] which generated much controversy as the Taliban leader has claimed bombing many schools, hospitals and killing oridanry women and citizens.