ISLAMABAD – The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) onSunday imposed a ban on broadcasting live speeches of PakistanTehreek-e-Insaf leader and senator Azam Swati on all satellite TV channelswith immediate effect.
The media watchdog imposed a ban on his live speech a day after headdressed a rally in Rawalpindi on Saturday, where he used insultinglanguage against the top military officials including the outgoing armychief.
The defiant politician hurled allegations and used offensive languageagainst a senior official of the top intelligence agency. He furthersingled out military officials and threatened them.
In his fiery speech, Swati, 74, vowed to go against army officials on everyplatform, saying he will use every legal and moral forum against them.
Following Swati’s speech, several politicians from the ruling alliancecondemned his allegations against institutions, which also prompted actionfrom federal investigators who detained the PTI leader earlier today.
Read Top Stories
PEMRA, in a notification, said “Mr. Azam Khan Swati, on November 26, 2022,in a public gathering at Rawalpindi, aired on various satellite TVchannels, made aspersions against the state institutions by levelingbaseless allegations.”
It said, “airing of such content is a willful violation of PEMRA’sdirectives as well as PEMRA laws which explicitly refrain all the licenseesfrom telecasting any content in any manner against state institutions andPEMRA in view of the above-referred reasons, in the exercise of delegatedpowers of the Authority vested in Section 27(a) of the PEMRA Ordinance 2002as amended by PEMRA (Amendment) Act 2007, hereby prohibits broadcast andre-broadcast of speech(es)/press conferences/media coverage of Mr. AzamKhan Swati on all satellite TV channels with immediate effect”.
