Imran Khan Blacked Out on Pak TV Channels, Alleges PTI as Regulator Calls for Ban on ‘Hate Mongers’

Former prime minister Imran Khan has been blacked out from Pakistan’s TV channels on the directions of the establishment, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party has alleged.

Sources said the PEMRA (Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority) direction to TV channels to boycott people who damage peace and incite hatred was aimed at the cricketer-turned-politician whose brief arrest earlier this month triggered widespread violence across the country.

The ‘ban’ on Khan includes no live coverage, sound bite, visual or tickers.

According to a top source in the government, the establishment has decided to black out Khan and put a complete ban on his coverage on all news channels.

The Information & Broadcasting Ministry invited all TV channel owners for a meeting on Wednesday and directed them to black out Khan.

The source claims that the directives for banning the former prime minister were issued from Inter Services Intelligence’s (ISI) media cell.

The PEMRA notification, meanwhile, does not mention Khan but PTI said it was evident that a ban had been placed on the ex-cricketer.

Clearing the air, PEMRA said the events of May 9 — when violence broke out — had been aimed at ‘weakening the federation’ by promoting anti-state sentiments.

“TV channels should refrain from providing their airtime to such individuals who propagate hate speech and provoke public sentiments against the federation and state institutions,” it said. It also called for such ‘hate mongers and facilitators’ to be completely screened out from the media.

Such ‘outfits’ are polluting the minds of the innocent public and the motive is to harm the state and its institutions, the PEMRA notification reads.

According to the notification, this is “unequivocally a very horrific trend which needs to be condemned and those involved in promoting such activities must be boycotted for damaging peace and tranquility in Pakistan”.

Khan is already banned in effect from TV and has been using social media and YouTube to broadcast his speeches. However, news channels have indirectly mentioned his speeches and interviews which the establishment feels keeps him in the limelight and political discourse.