Meet Cyril Almeida, the man who 'triggered' Nawaz Sharif's exit

In the past, Almeida has been severely critical of the army, not so much the civilian govt

The dismissal of Nawaz Sharif as Pakistan Prime Minister by the country’s Supreme Court for his featuring in the Panama Papers may not be as straightforward as it seems. According to news reports in Pakistan, Sharif’s dismissal goes much beyond the banal occurrence of a corrupt politician having to relinquish a position of power after a protracted public outcry. As is the case with most things that make headlines in Pakistan, the army had a telling role to play here, too. 

On October 6 last year, Dawn, the country’s most-read English daily, published a news report on how Sharif, in a rare outburst, had chosen to reprimand the army for its support to terrorist groups in the region. “Act against militants or face international isolation, civilians tell military,” read the report’s headline. Sharif’s unceremonious ouster is being seen by some as the army’s way of getting back at him — the Pakistan Army enjoys supreme authority; its tyrannical decision-making has seldom been questioned. Curiously, two officers from the Inter-Services Intelligence were a part of the six-member panel that probed corruption charges against Sharif. 

The sensational story was broken by Cyril Almeida, a popular Dawn columnist based in Islamabad. In an act of desperation, the Pakistan government denied that any such differences existed between the prime minister and the army, and Almeida’s report was hastily rubbished. A few days later, the interior ministry put Almeida on the “Exit Control List”, barring him from leaving the country. The ban was lifted on October 14 following a swelling of public support for Almeida. Later that same month, however, Information Minister Pervez Rasheed was asked to resign for his role in the scoop. He was accused of leaking the “sensitive” information to Almeida. 

Almeida, two weeks after the hullabaloo had first started, wrote a piece in Dawn offering a point-by-point rebuttal to the charges levelled against him. While some people extolled him for his fearlessness in unearthing the truth, others saw his reportage as an unforgivable example of national disloyalty. In his defence, Almeida wrote that the time between when he first got the story and its publishing was spent verifying, double- and triple-sourcing and seeking official comment. He went on to say that he didn’t regret exploring the subject. Almeida did not respond to a request for a comment. 

In the past, Almeida has been severely critical of the army, not so much the civilian government. In his latest column, “Goodbye, Nawaz”, on July 30, he wrote: “The judgment itself is confounding, appalling in argument and scope. It is, quite nakedly, a decision in search of a reason. Why did it happen? Eventually we’ll figure it out. This isn’t a place known for keeping its secrets long.” 

Almeida did not explicitly hold the army responsible, but also didn’t conceal the fact that Sharif was perhaps given a raw deal. A day earlier, he had written about how this was a “shattering blow to the legacy of Sharif, a third-term prime minister months away from the historic milestone of a full term”. 

Almeida comes from a Goan Catholic community that migrated to Pakistan more than a hundred years ago. On one of his visits to Goa a few years ago, he spoke about the lack of a bright future for journalism in Pakistan. 

He, however, didn’t start out as a journalist himself. After graduating in economics from Lahore University of Management Sciences in 2003, a degree in jurisprudence from Oxford helped him practise law in Karachi for almost a year, before he landed a job with Dawn. With his name off the dreaded Exit Control List, Almeida can now travel to Goa — which he often does — to meet relatives again. As for Sharif, he can’t afford any such luxuries right now.