New Delhi, Delhi, India

Pakistan's top news channel, Geo News, has been forced to go off air in most parts of the country in what is being seen as a move by the military, reports said on Saturday. 

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Reports quoted Pakistan home minister Ahsan Iqbal as saying it was not taken off air by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) or the ministry of information. “We are off the air in 80% of the country,” Mir Ibrahim Rahman, the chief executive of Geo network, told media without blaming anyone.

In the first week of March, Geo News was shut down in cantonment areas across the country and residential neighborhoods that are administered by the military. Now, all Geo channels — including news, entertainment and sports channels — started being blocked across the country by cable operators. The network’s channel assignment on the cable distribution network has also been lowered.

The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority has insisted that it is not behind the move, and put out a notice for cable operators not to disrupt Geo’s transmissions.

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As per reports, the reason for this move could be following the channels alleged critical coverage of Pakistan’s placement on a terrorism financing watch list this year. More recently, according to media reports, news reports and articles critical of the army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, and his domestic and foreign policy preferences, known here as the “Bajwa Doctrine”, have also outraged generals.

The Committee to Protect Journalists this week expressed concerns over the censorship of Geo network.

According to reports, both Geo TV and its mother organisation, Jang media group, were close to the country’s powerful security establishment, but the channel has become increasingly critical of the military in the past few years.