ARY forced to cancel Shahbaz interview
LONDON – The PML (N) President Mian Shahbaz Sharif’s interview was cancelled on May 9 due to government pressure minutes before it was to be broadcast by the ARY Digital television channel, its management said. The interview was to be conducted by Dr. Shahid Masud.
According to the ARY Digital ChannelÂ’s management, they were threatened by the personnel of various agencies that their Karachi office would be closed down and their staff would also be picked up and shifted to unknown place if they did not cancel the interview.
“There will be no guarantee of the safety of the staff”, the management of the television quoted officials of the agencies as having told them.
Mian Shahbaz Sharif, while commenting on the situation, said that he will come to Pakistan according to his schedule. “The government cannot stop me from coming back”, he said, adding that the rulers “had lost their senses.”
He said the interview was cancelled at the behest of President Pervez Musharraf and the ban on government advertisements to certain newspapers speaks volumes for the freedom of the Press in Pakistan.
While talking to his spokesman Farrukh Shah on telephone, Mian Shahbaz Sharif said that he will come back on May 11. “Pakistan is my country and place of birth. I will live or die for my homeland”, Mian Shahbaz Sharif said, adding that the service to the country was his motto.
“My heart beats for the Pakistanis and no one can deprive me of my basic right of returning to my beloved country”, Mian Shahbaz Sharif said.
The spokesman, quoting Mian Shahbaz Sharif, said that the armed personnel of various agencies stormed into the Karachi residence of Haji Salman Iqbal – the owner of the ARY Digital television channel – and threatened him of dire consequences if the interview was broadcast.
“The business (of television channel) will be no more there and his life (of Haji Salman Iqbal) will be under threat”, the agencies personnel told the ARY Digital Channel, according to Shahbaz Sharif as quoted by the spokesman.
Source: The Nation
Date:5/10/2004
” 
” 
” 
” 
