Pakistani television station GEO-TV has been shut down in locations across the country, according to the station’s managing director.
Government officials have instructed cable operators to remove the channel from the airwaves or push it farther down in the channel order, Azhar Abbas said Saturday. The channel signal has been blocked in certain areas, but other cable operators are still carrying it. The channel is functioning and broadcasting in some areas in Pakistan. Repeated phone calls from CNN to the Pakistani government for comment were not returned. Pakistan’s Information Minister Sherry Rehman has resigned to protest restrictions on local media, a high-ranking source in the Ministry of Information told CNN on Saturday. Rehman, a key member of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), handed in her resignation to Pakistani Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, the source said.
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GEO-TV is one of the most popular television channels in the country and its coverage has been critical of the PPP-led government in recent weeks. The station has aired numerous reports on the recent lawyers’ movement. Lawyers in the country are publicly demanding the government restore judges the previous president ousted. Thousands of demonstrators were expected to head to Islamabad as part of a four-day “Long March.” The demonstrators plan a massive sit-in at the parliament building Monday. Many have tuned to GEO-TV, which is known to have an anti-establishment stance, for its critical coverage of the lawyers’ movement.
