Anchorperson and YouTuber Imran Riaz Khan has given an interview for the first time following his recovery after disappearing in May.
“It is unfortunate if I ever thought that someone’s disappearance may be in the interest of the state”, he said when questioned about his previous stance when he advocated that missing persons are not innocent.
During a podcast with his lawyer, Mian Ali Ashfaq, ‘Cross-Examination’, he said that “The pain is worse when you are tortured by your own people.”
He however did not reveal his whereabouts during his disappearance, nor what conditions he was kept in.
In response to the arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan on May 9, there were violent demonstrations in various cities of the country and attacks on military installations and buildings.
The police arrested PTI leaders and activists besides Imran Riaz, who, according to the authorities, was allegedly trying to go abroad from Sialkot airport.
After his release on May 11, according to police, he went missing outside the prison and returned home several months later in September.
“I am not a traitor”
Imran Riaz Khan asserted that he is not a traitor nor did he meet with any enemy of the state.
“No one should be treated as if he is an enemy of the country,” he said.
‘Enforced disappearance is not justified’
In the past, Imran Riaz Khan used to take on those who criticized the state institutions in the country.
In one of his vlogs he criticised Gulalai Ismail, a social activist who supports the Pashtun Protection Movement (PTM), stating ‘She is one of those women who burns one’s own house to prove their own selves truthful… They do this to become famous in the west.”
This was at a time when Gulalai had taken refuge in the United States.
Similarly, Imran Riaz Khan pointed to one of the protests organised for the recovery of missing persons and said that “These people betray the country and attack the institutions.”
Imran Riaz now admits that he did not feel the gravity of the issue as much as he does now.
“I regret today that I ever thought in my life that if someone disappeared, it could be in the interest of the state,” adding that he apologises to all the people who he hurt.
He asserted that there is no justification for enforced disappearances and that if a person is a criminal, they should be brought before the law.
Nonetheless, Imran Riaz still supports the PECA law, under which journalists can be prosecuted for criticising state institutions in online content.
He said that PECA should be applied to journalists too, adding that dragging issues through the mud is not journalism.
“I am in favour of the strictness of the law but against its misuse,” he said.
