Pakistan has decided to block media coverage and interviewsof politicians who are convicts or under-trail prisoners and directed thePakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) to fulfil its”responsibility” to discourage airing of such programmes byelectronic media.
A cabinet meeting on Tuesday, presided over by PrimeMinister Imran Khan, also unveiled details of foriengn visits of formerPresident Asif Ali Zardari and former Prime Ministers Nawaz Sharif and ShahidKhaqan Abbasi, observing that the they had made 245 foreign visits on whichover Rs 3.5 billion was spent, Dawn newspaper reported.
On the issue of the video leak related to an allegedconversation between Accountability Court Judge Arshad Malik and Nasir Butt, aclose aide of Nawaz Sharif, the cabinet reached the conclusion that as thevideo was made public by Maryam Nawaz, daughter of Sharif and a senior leaderof the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), therefore the onus to prove theallegations against the judge was on her and not the judge and the judiciary.
He, however, said the government had not directed Pemra toclose down any private TV channel as it was an independent body competent totake its own decisions.
Pemra suspended transmission of three private TV channels acouple of days ago for airing an interview of PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari whois in the custody of the National Accountability Bureau and facing a trial in afake accounts/money laundering case.
The authority also took off air an interview of the formerPresident which was being conducted by anchor Hamid Mir on July 1, on thepremises of the Parliament House where the former had come to attend a NationalAssembly session after the house’s speaker had issued his production order.
The government is reportedly of the view that the productionorders of Zardari were issued only to enable him to attend the assembly sessionand not for giving any interview to ‘undermine’ the judiciary and trial court.