Mast Qalandar
Geo News is back on cable TV in Pakistan! It was banned along with two other popular TV channels on November 3 last year when Emergency was imposed in the country.
We don’t know on what conditions the channel has been allowed to operate again. We also don’t know how much dent the 77-day ban must have made in the profitability of the news company — it must be pretty huge — or to the livelihood of the journalists working for it.
But we do know that the ban made a huge dent in the government’s credibility and the image of “enlightened moderation” that it was so eager to project. It also left in its wake numerous angry messages and slogans on the wallboards outside the Geo office in Islamabad. They do give you a flavor of the general feelings prevailing at the time in a large segment of the civil society.
The photos with this post are here for you to decipher them, enjoy them, add to them, or ignore them.
Photos for this article are taken by the author himself. His full collection can be seen here.
Salim Bhai Musharraf wanted to talk to all the parties but few accepted the invitation.
salute to the rahmans – shakeel and ibrahim
they must have lost close to 700-800 million in revenues but they stuck to their guns
maybe it is a harbinger of good tidings
Adil Sahib;
Gen Musharraf lost 2 fans( MY WIFE AND ME) when he started wheeling and dealing with the Mullahs, MQM, AND FINALLY PPP. His inviting BB and forgiving her deeds of cash and kind(extra-judicial stuff in Karachi) was the last straw in our disillusionment in his person.
We still felt what is fair is fair. Exactly one week before Geo was banned we wrote them(GEO) that their news reporting was slanted. We said they had a right to their op-ed, but their news needs to be balanced. We said their love for BB was their business but their Qaseedas cannot be part of news without balancing them with her misdeeds.
Mir Sahibs discussions and Dr.S’ s interviews we said were crossing boundaries of etiquette and were argumentative,neither of the two behaviors we have seen in the US,which was often used as a reference point.
So when GEO was banned, it was one more disappointment in Musharraf but it definitely was not a surprise for us.
Regards;
Salim.
Geo khud bhi geo aur doosroon ko bhi genay do.
Im sure GEO finally agreed to Musharaf’s proposal of airing his buddy Altaf Hussain 4-5 minutes everyday in their headlines, showing what he did since he got up in the morning along with his manhoos face.