Zamir in Urdu means conscience, and since his hook Press in Chains (Karachi Press Club, 1986) came out, Zamir Niazi has been the voice of conscience of the Pakistani press, its society and government. Press in Chains is a detailed history of government control and coercion of the press in Pakistan since 1947, and is distinguished by its thorough documentation—no incident was cited without attribution, a feature which is lacking in much of the history written in Pakistan. The book became an immediate bestseller and went into many reprints, both in Pakistan and India.
Niazi followed his pioneering work with two more: The Press Under Siege, a look at the violence against and intimidation of the press from non-government sources, and The Web of Censorship, which exposed the culture of self-censorship in the press.
Now 67 and stricken with cancer, Niazi remains very much a fighter for press freedom, and is preparing his fourth book. Himal caught up with the author in his Karachi home, against the backdrop of the very public row between the Sharif government and the Jang Group of Newspapers. (See Commentary page 8)
Interviewed by Hasan Zaidi