Karachi: The Pakistan Government has banned a popular television talk show run by the country's biggest media network, Geo, which gave extensive coverage of the events that followed the suspension of Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry by President Pervez Musharraf.
State-controlled Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) ordered the management of the Geo TV network Thursday night to stop airing its flagship daily news programme Aaj Kamran Khan Key Saath with immediate effect, a spokesman of Geo News said Friday.
As per the Government order, Geo News aired an apology to its viewers at 2300 hrs PST on Thursday night, the schedule time for the show hosted by Karachi-based Kamran Khan, explaining the Government order that led to the banning of the show.
"As per the Government order we have stopped the show and informed our viewers about the position explaining the government position," a spokesman said.
Khan, when contacted, said he was surprised that the Government had taken such a desperate measure. "I never knew that the Government would act like this and lose patience so soon with free flow of information."
The Government came in for scathing criticism during the last few of Khan's shows on the issue of the suspension of the Chief Justice on March 9 with participants wading into the Government handling of the case.
Khan said he never had any other agenda other than providing people the most accurate and objective analysis on an "important turning point" for the country.
"This programme was very much within the framework of the law and had no illegal contents," he said.
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