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.
Could we as a society finally be coming of age? I used to hear a lot of people say that we needed one good leader (saviour) to put things right. It seems to me, that today a lot of us are finally looking within themselves and wondering what THEY CAN do! I think that today we have not one hero, but quite a few of them around us. I think the press has been wonderful. It’s because of them that we know what’s going on. Some may have backed down a bit when under pressure, but only a bit. I can’t imagine the pressure they must be going through, but they are still managing to go on and keep telling the truth. I think editors, analysts and tv journalists/presentators have done and are still doing a great job. Other heros include our lawyers (with reservations about stone throwing), judges like FJ Ibrahim, and everyone trying to keep the info flowing. These include bloggers, those sending regular mails with info, those writing petitions and those simply raising their voice.
All of you, all of us are a source of inspiration, pride and the reason hope remains alive.
Correction: Today there was a story on cnn related to the crisis.
I am quite sure that the extreme steps that have been taken by our government would not have happened without the explicit approval of Mush’s external allies.
I have yet to see any major story on cnn or msnbc regarding this issue.
Whatever next, I am already mentally prepared of a new ban on all blogs that are going anti Mush over this. Its surprising to me that through out this whole fiasco, Mushy’s biggest supporters outside of Pakistan, have remained silent. We haven’t once heard the state department come out and condemn these moves, or the E.U. issuing any statements expressing just their concern on how such events push back democracy in the country…nothing at all.
Utterly shameful. The Freedom of the Media myth was burst the very day Blogspot was banned all over Pakistan more than a year ago, this is just an inevitable manifestation of that mentality spilling on to television channels as well.