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All About
Alumni
It is possible to end a
day with your eyelids
swollen shut and
blood trickling from
your ears
Charlotte Gill on her life
as a tree planter
p. 49
Muhammad Lila at
Cummer Park in Toronto
Clear and Present Danger
For ABC correspondent Muhammad
Lila, risk-taking is part of the job
RIOTING IN THE STREETS. GUNFIRE. NUCLEAR STANDOFF. Most people,
confronted with these events, sensibly head in the opposite
direction. Muhammad Lila isn’t most people.
As the new digital correspondent for ABC News in
Pakistan and Afghanistan, Lila (BA 2002 University College)
is responsible for diving in when news breaks in one of the
most tumultuous parts of the world. “I thrive on it,” Lila says.
“I want to be the person on the scene; I want to be that guy
who gets the call at 2 a.m. It’s an honour.”
Since he began the job in January, the calls have come
thick and fast: in February, violent protests swept Afghanistan
after U.S. troops burned copies of the Qur’an at the Bagram
airbase north of Kabul; in March, an American soldier was
accused of gunning down 16 Afghan civilians in the Panjwai
district of Kandahar. Lila was on the scene in both cases,
filing reports for all of ABC’s news divisions – the catch-all
“digital correspondent” title means he reports on TV, on
radio and online.
“I think the next year or two will be the most pivotal in that
region in the last 10 years,” he says. As NATO forces continue
to withdraw from Afghanistan, the Taliban is increasing its
activity; the internal politics of Pakistan – a nuclear-armed
nation – are heating up; and there’s talk of Western strikes
against Iran over its purported nuclear program. “So you’ve
got all these fascinating things – from a journalistic
PHOTO: DEREK SHAPTON
summer 2012 45