Hamid Mir

In December 2011, Mir received death threats after he hosted a TV show on Influence of ISI in Pakistani politics. He reportedly left Geo TV on 10 August 2018 and joined GNN News as a president.

He was awarded with the civil award Hilal-i-Imtiaz for this work from Pakistan. In 2016, he was awarded Free Press Award in the "Most Resilient Journalist Award" category. In 2017, he was awarded the lifetime achievement award by former Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali for his work as a news anchor.

He was also the subject of an attempt on his life in November 2012, when half a kilogram of explosives was placed in his car, which was successfully defused by the bomb squad. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility.

In May 2010, an audio tape of a conversation between Mir and Usman Punjabi who was allegedly the 2nd in command of Hakimullah Mehsud surfaced. In the tape they discussed then-kidnapped Khalid Khawaja with Mir urging that he be further interrogated by his Taliban-linked captors. Khawaja was killed in April 2010 by his captors. Rashed Rahman, editor of the English-language Daily Times newspaper said "If this tape turns out to be genuine, it suggests a journalist instigated the murder of a kidnapee. A line must be drawn somewhere.". Mir has denied the authenticity of the tape. Later on Usman Punjabi was killed by Taliban. According to Der Spiegel Mir is popular journalist in Pakistan. In 2015, Washington Post called Mir as "Pakistan's most famous TV journalist who lives like a fugitive".

In 2009, Mir compared the Hamas and the Taliban. According to Mir, "Hamas probably have more suicide bombers than Taliban, but they are different from each other". In an article titled "Hamas builds while Taliban bomb schools", Mir wrote that both Hamas and Taliban were born in refugee camps, and both were initially encouraged by the West. Mir claimed that some of the Hamas leaders were educated in Pakistani universities, and that many of them were part of the Afghan Jihad against the former Soviet Union, and close to Abdullah Azzam who was also a mentor of Osama bin Laden in early 1980s.

The US Ambassador in Pakistan wrote a letter to the Geo TV management in September 2009 complaining about Mir on incorrect reporting.

On 16 March 2007, during live coverage of the lawyers' protest against the suspension of the Chief Justice of Supreme Court Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Mir was attacked by police at his Islamabad office. Later, then President, Pervez Musharraf apologised to Mir in his show after few hours of the attack. Mir was banned by PEMRA in November 2007 for four months to appear on TV. Mir came on roads after the ban and organised street shows. The Washington Post published an article on his show on the roads. He was again banned by the government of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in June 2008 for a few days on Geo News. His did investigative documentary on the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto aired on Geo TV on 23 December 2008.

Mir was arrested by Hezbollah in Beirut during Israel-Lebanon war in July 2006 while trying to cover the scenes of Israeli jets bombing on Beirut, but was later set free after Hezbollah was assured that he was not an Israeli spy, just few seconds of his escaped the place was bombed by Israeli forces making him barely escape the scenario.

In 2002, Mir joined GEO TV where he begin hosting a political talk show Capital Talk. His popularity increased as Geo became one of the popular TV channel in Pakistan where Pakistani politicians, both from the ruling and oppositions parties appeared to debate on current events and controversial topics.

Mir was the first Pakistani journalist to interview Osama bin Laden. He first interviewed Bin Laden for the Daily Pakistan in March 1997, in a cave of Tora Bora mountains in eastern Afghanistan. Mir interviewed Bin Laden for the second time for Ausaf in May 1998, in a hideout near the Kandahar International Airport. Mir was the first and the last journalist to interview Bin Laden after the September 11 attacks. He interviewed Bin Laden for the third time for Dawn and Ausaf on 8 November 2001, at an undisclosed location near Kabul.

Mir went to eastern Afghanistan, where he investigated the escape of Osama bin Laden from Tora Bora mountains in December 2001. Mir visited the caves of bin Laden, during the American bombing. Mir also disclosed that it was U.S.-backed Northern Alliance leader Hazrat Ali who provided safe passage to bin Laden after getting a huge bribe.

In 1996, Mir became the editor of the Daily Pakistan in Islamabad, making him the youngest editor of any national Urdu newspaper in the history of Pakistani journalism. He lost his job again in 1997, when he wrote an article in the Daily Pakistan about the alleged corruption of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Also on 25 December 1997, he launched Daily Ausaf (Islamabad) as founding editor.

Mir joined the Daily Jang (Lahore) in 1987 and worked there as sub-editor, reporter, feature writer and edition in charge. In 1990, Mir was abducted, beaten and driven to a house where his captors demanded to know his source for the critical story he wrote when then President Ghulam Ishaq Khan was planning to dismiss the Bhutto government. In 1994, he broke the submarines purchase scandal. Some close friends of Asif Zardari (husband of then Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto) were involved in that scandal, along with some Navy officials. Mir lost his job from daily Jang the day his article was published.

Hamid Mir (Urdu: حامد مير ‎) (born 23 July 1966) is a Pakistani journalist, columnist and an author. Born in Lahore to a journalistic family, Mir initially worked as a journalist with Pakistani newspapers. Later, through the help of several political figures, most importantly PML-N gained popularity. He currently hosts the political talk show Capital Talk on Geo News. He writes columns for Urdu as well as English newspapers, both national and international.