Daily Times

Prime Minister Imran Khan permitted the news channels across Pakistan to broadcast PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif’s speech at the all-parties conference (APC), a private TV channel reported on Sunday.

As per reports, the prime minister rejected the suggestion from his aides to write a letter to the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) in order to block the transmission of Nawaz’s speech on media.

A day prior, the government had said that it would use the PEMRA and other laws to take action if the former prime minister’s address to the APC is broadcast. Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Political Communication, Dr Shahbaz Gill, had said that it was not possible that an ‘absconding criminal’ takes part in political activities and gives speeches. “The Sharif family can tell nothing but lies. They are such [habitual] liers that they even lied about a disease,” he had said.

According to reports, the prime minister was told that there were court orders in which the culprit was barred from making statements on media, suggesting that PEMRA should implement such decisions. However, the prime minister did not agree with the suggestions from his aides. “Nawaz Sharif will expose himself to the people with his speech. He [Nawaz Sharif] is lying so let him lie,” Imran Khan reportedly said.

Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Accountability Shahzad Akbar in his statement said that it is claimed that media is not free in Pakistan, yet the nation has heard the live speech of a ‘convicted notorious criminal against the law’. He said that the opposition leaders stress on ‘respecting the vote’ on one hand, and at the same time they leave the voters and run away to London in times of despair.