ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The authorities on Thursday arrested the owner of the country’s largest media group on three-decade-old allegations involving a land deal, a case widely criticized by journalist groups as an attempt to muzzle independent news reporting.

The owner, Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman, is one of Pakistan’s most influential media figures, and his company, the Jang Media Group, has run afoul of successive governments. But the current prime minister, Imran Khan, has shown particular impatience with its coverage.

“This arrest over a 34-year-old land deal makes a mockery of Pakistan’s claim to be a democracy that upholds freedom of the press,” said Steven Butler, Asia program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists, one of several groups to denounce the arrest.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, an independent group, called the case “another attempt to gag a beleaguered independent press.”