Islamabad:

Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has again suspended ARY News’s license for broadcasting excerpts of Pakistan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief and former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s speech, which was previously banned by the regulatory body , Dawn reported.

Interestingly, this is the third time there has been a ban on broadcasting and rebroadcasting Mr Khan’s speeches and press talks after he lashed out at former army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa. Coincidentally, ARY news’s license was also revoked for the second time.

According to PEMRA, broadcasting “baseless allegations, the hateful, defamatory and baseless statement” against state institutions and officials was a pure violation of Article 19 of the Constitution of Pakistan and a ruling of the Supreme Court of Pakistan in a Suo Moto case.

PEMRA issued an order suspending ARY News’ license, stating, “It is also clear that Ammad Yousaf, senior executive vice president, had shared Pemra’s order on his Twitter account at 8:26 p.m..”

“In view of the foregoing, the Competent Authority i.e. the President of Pemra shall suspend in the exercise of the powers conferred by Section 30(3) of the 2002 Pemra Ordinance as amended by the 2007 Pemra (Amendment) Act , hereby renews the satellite television channel broadcasting license granted to M/s ARY Communications Ltd. (ARY News) effective immediately, until further notice,” it added.

Earlier, PEMRA issued a statement: “It has been observed that Imran Khan [Chairman PTI] continues to accuse state institutions in his speeches/statements by making unfounded accusations and spreading hate speech through his provocative statements against state institutions and officials, which is detrimental to the maintenance of law and order and is likely to disturb public peace and tranquility .”

The authority further said that after analyzing the content of Imran’s speech, it was noted that the content was broadcast live by the licensees without an effective time-delay mechanism, which is a violation of Pemra laws and against the rulings of the courts.

“The Competent Authority i.e. Chairman PEMRA, given the above background and reasons, in exercising delegated powers of the Authority set out in section 27(a) of the PEMRA Regulation 2002 as amended by PEMRA (Amendment) Act 2007, hereby bans the broadcasting of Imran Khan’s live speech on all satellite TV channels with immediate effect,” the authority added, according to ARY News.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is being published from a syndicated feed.)