Walsh endorses Nizami’s account of his expulsion from Pakistan

New York Times Pakistan Bureau Chief Declan Walsh has confirmed the account of his expulsion from Pakistan in the year 2013 narrated by Pakistan Today Editor Arif Nizami, who was the caretaker minister for information and broadcasting at that time.

In a tweet on May 25, Walsh said: “Former minister Arif Nizami (@paktoday) offers a candid, accurate account of my departure from Pakistan in 2013.”

In his article published in Pakistan Today’s weekly news magazine DNA on May 23 focussing on the Axact fake degree scandal and its CEO Shoaib Shaikh’s allegations against the NYT reporter of maligning Pakistan deliberately, Mr Nizami wrote that Walsh was expelled from Pakistan in May 2013, on the eve of the general elections.

“I recall quite vividly that Mr Walsh came to see me at my office on May 9, 2013. He informed me that through a letter from the Interior Ministry his visa, valid till January 2104, had been cancelled citing “undesirable activities”, and that he had been asked to leave the country within 72 hours.

“On inquiring from the Interior Minister I was plainly told that those who matter in Pakistan had expelled Mr Walsh and the Interior Ministry was just a post office. Nonetheless, despite my best efforts, Walsh was detained at his hotel in Lahore by security officials on Election Day, and was thrown out the next morning.

“I was told that Walsh had surreptitiously travelled to Balochistan, which was a no go area even for the foreign journalists based in Islamabad. The NYT bureau chief had filed a story titled “Pakistan’s Secret Dirty War” alleging human rights abuses in Balochistan and the plight of the missing persons. Previously, he had filed a story on Kamra Aeronautical Complex harbouring nuclear missiles. The story turned out to be a canard.”