ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – A veteran Pakistani journalist who had been critical of the country’s powerful military establishment was shot near his home on Tuesday but survived, officials said.
The shooting gave the Pakistani journalist community, which came under pressure from the army and its allies into the country’s ruling party, a chill.
The journalist, Absar Alam, who also served as chairman of the country’s government authority for electronic media, was injured when he was shot during an evening walk in a park near his home in Islamabad. Officials said Mr. Alam is in a stable condition.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, the country’s interior minister, said he had ordered an investigation, and Fawad Chaudhry, the information minister, condemned what he called an assassination attempt.
In a video message shortly after the shooting, Mr. Alam said he was hit by a bullet in the ribs and said he did not know the gunman. “I will not lose hope and will not be deterred by such acts,” he said. Alam said in the video when he was transported to a nearby hospital. “This is my message to the people who shot me.”
Mr. Alam made no specific allegations about who may be behind the attack. But many journalists noted that he had just posted tweets two days earlier accuses the country’s powerful intelligence chief, Lt.Gen. Faiz Hameed, to put him under pressure in 2018 to provide critical coverage of the previous government, led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, or PML-N, party, during the protest against the government.
Mr. Alam has mentioned threats against his life before, and he is seen as sympathetic to the PML-N party, which has been critical of the army’s power.
Attacks and threats against journalists have become commonplace in Pakistan. One of the most notable attacks was in 2014, when influential talk show host Hamid Mir was shot and wounded in Karachi, in an assault his family blames the country’s intelligence agencies.
On Tuesday, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, the daughter of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and a leader in the PML-N party, condemned the attack on Mr. Alam.
“Silencing the voice of disagreement is a cancer that has plagued this country for many years,” she said in a Twitter post. “Absar Alam Sahab is the latest victim of this cruel and barbaric crime.”