Pakistan has barred its television channels from airing former premier Imran Khan’s speeches, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority said, in an order that accused the opposition leader of “baseless accusations and spreading hate speech” against state institutions and officers.
Khan’s actions are “prejudicial to the maintenance of law and order and is likely to disturb public peace and tranquility,” the authority said late Sunday while directing all satellite channels not to broadcast any of his recorded or live news conference or speech. Licenses will be suspended if the order is not complied with, it added.
Hours before Pemra’s ban, police tried to arrest Khan, 70, in Pakistan’s central city of Lahore after a court on Tuesday issued a non-bailable warrant against him for not attending proceedings. Police said he was evading arrest.
Khan has drawn tens of thousands to his rallies in recent months and his arrest could bring them to the streets, posing a major distraction for Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government as it races to secure bailout loans from the International Monetary Fund to fend off potential bankruptcy.
“I bow only in front of god and no other power or institution,” the leader told cheering supporters at his residence in Lahore on Sunday. “This is our war for real freedom,” he added, blaming Sharif and his government of sweeping corruption.
Khan and his party have been calling for early elections and have previously said they will court arrest to push their demands. Sharif has dismissed their demands, saying his government will complete its term that ends in August this year.
A police team arrived at Khan’s private residence to arrest him Sunday and present him before a court but he wasn’t immediately found, according to Taqi Jawad, spokesman of Islamabad police. The former leader has to be presented before the court on March 7, Akbar Nasir Khan, the inspector-general of the Islamabad police, told local media.
“The police must arrest him,” he told ARY Television. “We appeal to the people not to hinder the legal process.”
An official from Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf party said the former cricket star was still at his residence, which was surrounded with tents put up by supporters in the past few months to defend their leader in the event of an arrest. Party leaders are taking to social media to urge supporters to gather at Khan’s home.
“Attempting to arrest Imran Khan on fake and flimsy cases will be extremely destabilizing in a system that is already under stress,” Hammad Azhar, a senior PTI leader, told Bloomberg News. “There will be countrywide protests.”
A Pakistani court issued an arrest warrant against Khan last week after he didn’t appear in a hearing for a complaint over his failure to declare his assets. The Election Commission had disqualified the former cricket star in October for allegedly hiding money earned from selling state gifts he received when he was prime minister. Khan has denied any wrongdoing.
He attended multiple court hearings last week, emerging for the first time in months since he was shot and wounded in the leg during a street protest in November. Khan has blamed Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, and a general in the country’s powerful spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, for the attack. All three have denied his allegation.
Khan’s arrest will exacerbate political tensions as the country struggles with a wide-spread economic crisis. Rating agencies have downgraded Pakistan deeper into junk on concerns about debt payments as the country has neared default. Foreign exchange reserves have dropped to cover less than a month of imports.
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(With assistance from Saritha Rai and Muneeza Naqvi.)
