By Darwaish
Another unfortunate development of the day and I am unable to understand who is advising government of making such foolish decisions.
It seems now that the Government of Pakistan has banned Kamran Khan Show as yet another casualty in the ongoing saga of the Chief Justice of Pakistan’s (CJP) removal from office. Geo has just made it public and Kamran Khan appeared on Geo News just a few moments ago and apologized to viewers that he would not be able to present his show due to this ban (audio of what he said, here).
It was Kamran Khan Show in which Mr Wasi Zafar’s misbehavior on VOA was reported (video of that program here). He was also the host of Geo’s live transmission which showed and commented on the misbehavior with Chief Justice of Pakistan and his family last Monday. I guess Kamran Khan has finally paid the price of speaking the truth and his efforts to present facts to the people of Pakistan.
GEO TV website has this information on how the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has banned this show:
Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has imposed ban on “Aaj Kamran Khan Key Sath”, the famous programme of Geo Television Network.
“Aaj Kamran Khan Key Sath” has been stopped as the government has imposed ban on it, said the spokesman of the Geo Television Network.
It was regretted at 11:05 PM, when this programme starts daily, that the programme could not be aired due to government ban.
Reacting to the ban on this programme, Kamran Khan, the host of the programme, condemned the government action and said that there was no other agenda of the said programme except making people aware of real facts and correct analysis.
This is a direct attack on freedom of press and freedom of expression. Looks like we will now see more bans if Pakistani Media didn’t cooperate with the government. I am also wondering what will happen to the Ansaar Abbasi now. We should all condemn this unjust action? But HOW?
Here are two samples of video clips from the Kamran Khan Show related to this issue.
Here is GEO’s own report on the attack on its office.
Message from Altaf Hussain on attack on GEO office.
Hamid Mir interviews Gen. Musharraf on the attack.
The attack on a major TV channel by the police is disturbing enough, but what is really frightening is that everyone in the government — the information minister, the interior minister, the chief minister of Punjab, prime minister and president — feigns ignorance of why it happened and who ordered it. The question is who is running this government?
An article by Tariq Butt describes the police attack on Geo, Jang and The News offices in Islamabad. This is in the Top Stories section of The News today i. e. 17/03/2007. I am posting the link for today.
http://thenews.jang.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id =6555
Dont u ppl think we should not condemn ARMY/Current govt.. dogs should nto be condemned for barking… this is what is expected from them.. these army walas always do this … WE SHOULD NOW WAKE UP AND TAKE CONTROL OF OUR COUNTRY AND OUR FATE
Wow .. 14 high ranked police guys..who can dare to invade a media giant office. I feel sad for them. Mushi thinks ppl of Pakistan are idiots by making low ranked policemen an scapegoat
An inspector and 14 constables (pretty much like the ones you have in one of your headers). What kind of powers these souls had for an operation like this? I don’t think any.
This smells very fishy now. If this is all they are doing then this is an other bad stain on this government’s record.