Published 15:43 IST, July 2nd 2019
Former Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari's interview pulled off from Pakistani news channel mid-air
An interview of former President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari conducted by country's senior journalist Hamid Mir was taken off air within a few minutes of broadcasting on Monday.
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An interview of former President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari conducted by country's senior journalist Hamid Mir was taken off air within a few minutes of broadcasting on Monday.
Expressing his dismay in a series of tweets over the matter, journalist Mir informed that Zardari's interview began to air on Pakistani TV channel Geo News at 8:03 pm (local time). It remains unclear as to why the interview was taken off a few minutes later.
"Interview of Asif Zardari stopped on Geo News within few minutes those who stopped it has no courage to accept publicly that they stopped it," wrote Mir.
Mir went on to say, "Geo News announced that interview of Asif Zardari will not be aired it was started at 8:03 and stopped within few minutes I am getting calls from all over the world people asking what happened? State of Pakistan giving a bad name to this country we don't need enemies"
In a later tweet, Mir claimed that he received a call where he told that the team of a local television channel was under pressure to not interview him over the said matter.
"I was sitting in front of a Dawn News camera for 11 o clock show and then I received a call that @ZaraHatKay_Dawn team is under pressure not to interview me on Asif Ali Zardari issue they said sorry I said thank you, somebody, for running and controlling Pakistan on telephone calls," wrote Mir.
In snippets of the interview circulated across social media shows the former Pakistani president divulging that a probe involving Pakistan PM Imran Khan into a big scandal was underway. Critics have slammed the attack on Press Freedom in Pakistan by the authorities and blamed Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan over his alleged involvement in the unprecedented incident.
Notably, the incident took place against the backdrop of Zardari's arrest on Monday in a multi-million dollar money laundering case.
(With ANI inputs)
15:12 IST, July 2nd 2019