Cable operators on Friday stopped transmissions of a private news channel - apparently on the orders of the government during a cross-country march by the opposition parties, an official of the channel said. An alliance of opposition parties and tens of thousands of lawyers have launched a so-called long march on Islamabad for independent judiciary, a move that seems to turning into a popular movement.
The event is getting a comprehensive coverage from the local media, including Geo television, which suddenly went off the air late Friday in Islamabad and many other cities. "According to the information we are getting the government has ordered cable operators in various cities to stop the transmissions of Geo TV," said the channels Managing Director Azhar Abbas.
"It is because we were keeping our viewers updated about the long march and the other political developments, and the government didnt like it," he added. According to Abbas the one-year-old government is under lot of pressure because of the protests, and that appeared to have prompted it to ban independent media coverage.
The organisers of the protesters have planned to gather thousands of people for a sit-in in Islamabad on Monday until the reinstatement of an independent-minded top judge, who was sacked by the former military strongman Pervez Musharraf in 2007. But the government also seems determined to prevent them from entering Islamabad. More than 1,000 activists have been arrested, and thousands of policemen and paramilitary troops have been deployed to defend the capital.
President Asif Ali Zardari promised to restore the judge when his Pakistan Peoples Party formed a coalition government with the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz following February 2008 elections, which saw the defeat of Musharrafs political allies.
The PML-N broke away as Zardari remained reluctant to take back the independent judge, amid fears he might threaten him. "The recent ban on the channel reminds us the days when the government of former military dictator Musharraf imposed media curbs. That was a military dictatorship. We were not expecting the same from a democratic government," said Abbas. He said his news channel was broadcasting what was going on the ground - protests, arrests, what people think of the prevalent political turmoil, and the performance of the existing government.
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