hamid mir, in islamabad, welcome to hardtalk. thank you, stephen sackur, for inviting me on your show. well, it's a pleasure to have you on this show. clearly, you can talk to me in london from pakistan, but it seems you cannot speak to your own tv audience inside your own country. your show is currently banned, and indeed, your newspaper column seems to have been suspended too. why is that? yes, i am banned on my tv channel and i cannot write my regular column in my newspaper. this is not the first time. when pervez musharraf was in power, he also banned me on tv. but you see, he was a military dictator. he only banned me on tv. he never banned me on newspaper. now mr imran khan is the prime minister of pakistan, and unfortunately, i am not only on tv, but i am also banned to write a column in my newspaper. so it is democracy in pakistan, but there is no democracy. there is constitution of... ..in pakistan, but there is no constitution. and i am a living example of censorship in pakistan. now, it seems your suspension came about

well, my guest is hamid mir, a high profile columnist and tv

well, my guest is hamid mir, a high profile columnist and tv presenter, survivor of several past assassination