Islamabad, Pakistan:
According to a notice issued, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority said, the speeches made by Imran Khan during Long March and his press conference aired on various satellite TV channels on Friday “he has made aspersions against the state institutions by levelling baseless allegations for orchestrating an assassination plan.”
It added that airing such content was likely to create “hatred among the people or was prejudicial to the maintenance of law and order or was likely to disturb public peace and tranquillity or endanger national security”.
As per the Pakistan media body, the contents of Imran Khan’s speeches are being rebroadcast on various TV channels in their talk shows and news bulletins without any editorial oversight.
The PEMRA mentioned that this was a serious violation of Article 19 of the Constitution and Section 27 of PEMRA Ordinance 2002 as well as Electronic Media Code of Conduct 2015.
“In case of any violation, observed licence may be suspended … without any show-cause notice in the public interest along with other enabling provisions of law,” the notice read.
It added that the airing of “aforementioned hateful, slanderous, vilifying and unwarranted statements against the country’s leadership and state institutions is in sheer violation of Article 19 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.”
After analyzing above mentioned content of the speeches made by Imran Khan aired by various satellite TV channels, PEMRA said, “it has been observed that the licensees have been failed to comply with the above referred provisions of laws as well as the orders of the Hon’ble Courts, and to use delay mechanism effectively and to ensure effective Editorial Control.”
Furthermore, the media body said that “in case of any violation observed licence may be suspended.”
Imran Khan was injured in a firing incident near his container in Wazirabad in Pakistan’s Punjab province during his long march against the ruling coalition, reported ARY News.
Senior Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leaders on Thursday said that Imran Khan believes that the attack on him in which bullets were fired was carried out at the behest of three people including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, country’s Interior Minister and a top ISI General and his remarks were based on information he had received.
The suspect caught by police in Pakistan for opening fire during the PTI’s long march, has said he wanted to kill former Prime Minister Imran Khan because “he was misleading the public.”
Imran Khan on Saturday compared his ouster before the completion of the full electoral term in office in April this year with the 1971 war, which resulted in the formation of a new country – Bangladesh.
Speaking a day after he was shot during a protest march in Wazirabad, the country’s former premier compared the 1971 situation with 2022 in Pakistan. He said that in the year 1971 the Sheikh Mujibur Rahman-led Awami League was not allowed to form a government despite a majority.
Speaking for the first time, since the assassination attempt on him, Khan said, “There are only two options left with this (awakened) public: a peaceful or a bloody revolution. There is no third way out. I have seen the country wake up.”
“Now decide if we can bring change in a peaceful way through the ballot box or through chaos like the one witnessed in Iran and Sri Lanka,” he said after explaining the sequence of events during a televised address while still being admitted at a hospital in Lahore.
