ISLAMABAD: The federal government Saturday directed the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) to immediately revoke the ban on broadcasting PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s speeches, a private TV channel reported while quoting sources.
The government has directed the authority for revocation by exercising Section 5 of the PEMRA Ordinance 2002, the sources added.
Earlier, PEMRA imposed a ban on all satellite TV channels from broadcasting and rebroadcasting PTI chief Imran Khan’s speeches and press conferences.
According to a notice issued, the regulatory authority said that Khan during his long march speeches a day ago had “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”.
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 the 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.