Pakistan blocks a private news channel, in another attack on Press Freedom amid Imran Khan's US visit

In another brazen attack on the press freedom in Pakistan, the country's most popular private news channel 'Geo News' was forcefully put off the air. 

According to a report by Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the channel number of Geo News was either changed in parts of Pakistan or completely taken off, amid Pakistani Prime Minister's maiden visit to the US. 

The news channel was occluded hours before Khan arrived Washington DC, without any prior notice or explanation by the state media regulator, government or military of Pakistan.

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This blockage isn't the country's first, who has been amping up its act of intimidation on the media by either muting channels on air, alleged instigation of violence against reporters and so on. 

The Pakistani Army as per reports by CPJ has set restrictions on reporting from the conflicted Baluchistan. Earlier this month, Pakistan's Opposition leader Maryam Nawaz Sharif's speech was muted on live news telecast. 

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's daughter and staunch critique of the Pakistan government in a tweet lambasted the Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan by sharing a video in which her voice was muted at a live telecast on a Pakistani news channel amid a rally. 

A day before the Pakistan Prime Minister's meeting with US President Donald Trump, at the White House, with the attempt to revive the relations between the two nations, members of the Congress have written to the US President over the forced illegal conversion of minority Hindu and Christian girls back in Pakistan. 

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While Imran Khan's US visit commenced with utter humiliation after no US delegation came to receive the Pakistan Prime Minister, in another such instance, now 10 members of the Congress have written to the US President urging him to raise the human rights abuses in Sindh Province during their meeting on July 22. 

In an elaborate letter, US Congress said that the US has given Pakistan assistance of over $30 billion to improve social and economic conditions, along with good governance, however, none of this has occurred. 

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