Govt imposes media blackout of Imran Khan’s telethon for flood relief donations
Coalition government has imposed an unannounced media blackout of the telethon held by PTI Chief Imran Khan to raise flood relief donations.
The coalition government has imposed an unannounced media blackout of the telethon held by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chief Imran Khan.
Intensifying the censorship of media, the coalition government misused its powers to impose an unannounced media blackout of Imran Khan’s telethon for fundraising for the flood victims across Pakistan.
Most of the TV channels did not air Khan’s telethon started at 11:00 pm yesterday. However, three TV channels ARY News, BOL News and GNN were taken off-air after they showed courage to broadcast the telethon transmission.
The latest media blackout exposed the coalition government falling to a new low in exercising censorship of Imran Khan’s public addresses.
The agenda of Imran Khan’s telethon was aiming to raise funds for flood victims but it was not tolerated by the incumbent government. Earlier, Imran Khan’s live speeches were banned on media but the Islamabad High Court (IHC) lifted the restriction before his first international telethon.
Later, the government blocked YouTube access to stop the audiences from listening to Khan’s political speeches. This time, a complete media blackout was exercised by the coalition government.
Analysts said that the media blackout of the telethon of the PTI chairman was the worst kind of media censorship.
They said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari were also making efforts to bring maximum aid to Pakistan and calling for national unity to assist and serve the flood affectees.
However, the reality is very different as the political rivalry was put on priority by the coalition government as even they could not allow the PTI chief to independently raise funds for the flood victims.
According to PTI, Rs5.21 billion was collected during the second telethon of Imran Khan yesterday.
قوم کا اعتماد عمران خان !
29 اگست:پہلی ٹیلی تھون +500کروڑ
11ستمبر : دوسری ٹیلی تھون +521کروڑ pic.twitter.com/ypJKM7Xt0X— PTI (@PTIofficial) September 12, 2022
Earlier, Imran Khan had collected more than Rs5 donations for flood victims during his first international telethon that lasted for three hours.
It should be noted that the Chief Justice of Islamabad High Court Justice Athar Minallah suspended PEMRA’s ban on live broadcasting of Imran Khan’s speeches.
