ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, June 4 — In an apparent move to curb news media coverage of the continuing political crisis over his suspension of the country's chief justice, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the president of Pakistan, issued a decree on Monday that gives the government more powers to shut down independent television channels.
The decree allows a government regulatory agency to make new regulations on its own, to seize broadcast or distribution equipment and seal the premises of organizations that are operating illegally or against regulations. It also allows the agency to suspend broadcasters' licenses.
Even before the decree was issued, several news channels said, their transmissions were disrupted across much of the country over the weekend. GEO, the foremost independent channel, said its transmissions across most of Pakistan had been blocked since Sunday. The channel produces one of the country's leading political talk shows. Two other channels also reported heavy interference with their transmissions over much of the country.
All of Pakistan's independent television channels are transmitted by cable companies, and journalists blamed the government for pressing the cable companies to block or interfere with transmissions.
"The country is passing through a critical scenario," said Shahid Masood, host of the popular GEO talk show, "Meray Mutabik." "If no talk shows are allowed, if no discussion is allowed,then what is the use of a news channel?" We are not a party in this dispute. We are just messengers. Why are you shooting the messengers?"
But government officials deny the claims of interference. Muhammad Saleem, head of public relations and media at the agency that regulates the media, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority, said the government had nothing to do with stopping transmission of news channels. "There is a dispute between the cable operators and media channels," Mr. Saleem said. "We have no hand in this. We ourselves don't know what the issues between them are."
The moves against the television channels and Monday's decree appear to be the president's latest tactics in containing the political fallout from the suspension of the chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who has not shied away from challenging the government. The chief justice's dismissal has added to growing calls for change after seven and a half years of military rule by General Musharraf, who seized power in a coup.
The news media have given prominent coverage to the chief justice and to the lawyers, judges and opposition political parties around the country who have rallied behind him in his refusal to accept dismissal.
But on Friday, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority reminded all television channels that live coverage of political events was not permitted by law. As a result, private media channels did not provide live coverage of the chief justice's speech on Sunday in Abbottabad or of the political rallies timed to the visit at which protesters chanted against the president.
The increasing pressure on the news media threatens to undo one of General Musharraf's accomplishments: allowing some of Pakistan's media to be free from state control. More than 45 independent television channels have sprung up under his rule. Since the news media have aired growing criticism of his dismissal of the chief justice, he has argued that he supports free media but that news organizations should show responsibility.
The president issued Monday's decree, it said, because Parliament is not in session and "circumstances exist which render it necessary to take immediate action."
In an interview on Monday, Imran Aslam, president of GEO TV, called the government's claims that the transmission blockage was due to disagreements between television channels and cable operators "convenient, to put it mildly." He said live coverage of political events was becoming unacceptable for the government because it "takes in slogans, fiery speeches and rhetoric."
"News channels were asked to resort to recorded coverage and self-censorship," Mr. Aslam said. "It was O.K.; we live in an imperfect world." But he said that his channel's coverage had been balanced, and that he thought the government should be able to accept at least some criticism of the type it faced on television talk shows.
Mr. Masood, the GEO talk show host, said in a telephone interview Monday that his show was blocked Sunday evening as soon as it went on the air. He said he also had received anonymous threatening phone calls and that government officials had told his bosses to put him on paid leave to stop his program. In the show that was to be broadcast Sunday night, his guests — who took part by telephone — included a former army chief, a ruling party politician, and a retired judge, all of whom criticized the government of General Musharraf over its handling of the current legal and political crisis.
Mr. Masood said that the Jang Group, which owns GEO TV, refused to bow to the government pressure and that he had no plans to go on a paid leave.
Two other channels, Aaj and ARY-One, have reported intermittent blockage of their transmissions since March 9, when the judge was suspended. Mushtaq Minhas, Aaj's chief national reporter, said transmission was blocked in most parts of the country starting Friday, except for a brief period on Sunday. ARY-One faced similar transmission blocks over the weekend, according to the Pakistani news media.
On Monday, about 200 journalists, lawyers and opposition politicians protested boisterously outside the office of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority here in Islamabad, the capital.
"PEMRA and the government are fully behind the ban," Aroosa Alam, vice president of the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Press Club, was quoted as saying by Agence France-Presse. "We have won our freedom after a long struggle and nobody can take it back."
As an active justice, Mr. Chaudhry took cases involving "forced disappearances" — people believed to have been taken by intelligence agencies without due process.
In addition, several politically charged cases are likely to come before the high court soon, including one challenging the legality of General Musharraf's holding the posts of both president and chief of the army, and one on whether the present Parliament can re-elect him president.
Carlotta Gall contributed reporting.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/03/world/asia/03pakistan.html> June 3, 2007 Thousands Wait to Hear Ousted Pakistani Justice By CARLOTTA GALL
ABBOTTABAD, Pakistan, Sunday, June 3 — Pakistan's suspended chief justice led a cavalcade of about 100 cars jammed with lawyers and political supporters on a 75-mile trip from Islamabad on Saturday, continuing to protest his dismissal by Gen. Pervez Musharraf two months ago.
It was the first trip outside of the capital by the justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, since his trip to Karachi three weeks ago. Violence between his supporters and those of General Musharraf broke out upon his arrival in Karachi, leaving more than 40 people dead.
The government, lawyers' associations and political parties have blamed one another for the deaths.
On Friday, the government banned protests in the capital, but there was no attempt to stop Mr. Chaudhry's convoy as it left Islamabad on Saturday morning for Abbottabad, where he was to speak to the bar association.
Along the route, hundreds of people stood waiting at every junction and small town.
When the long motorcade passed, they tossed rose petals at Mr. Chaudhry's car, played drums and chanted, "Until independence for the judiciary, the fight goes on!" and "Go! Musharraf Go!"
"This is not just a movement of lawyers, but this is for you, to bring equality for you," Ahmed Khan, one of the lawyers representing Mr. Chaudhry, told a rally at the town of Haripur at midafternoon. "That's why the chief justice is going around the country and why we want him reinstated."
Mr. Chaudhry never left his car and did not speak to the crowds along the way.
When he arrived in Abbottabad at 11:30 p.m., thousands lined the streets to welcome him.
The opposition parties led by the former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif were out in force, as well as religious parties and other smaller group.
Hundreds of lawyers waited for hours in an Abbottabad park, listening to speeches and poetry and dancing in the aisles and on stage to a popular song whose refrain refers to General Musharraf: "Uncle, why don't you take off your uniform and go back home? Why don't you take your pension and go back home?"
The chief justice finally began to speak at 2 a.m. Sunday.
He told he lawyers that the judiciary should come forward as a strong institution that people could trust.
"You are waging an immortal struggle for the independence of the judiciary and the supremacy of law and the Constitution," he said. "You have given a lot of sacrifices, but you are not alone. The judiciary and the ordinary people are standing shoulder to shoulder with you."
He spoke of human rights and freedom of speech, citing articles of the a Constitution.
The government did not try to stop the political rallies along the way in support of Mr. Chaudhry, and the police provided security.
Government pressure was applied instead to the private media channels that have been following him on his tour of the country.
The government media-regulating agency warned all television channels that live coverage of events was not permitted, apparently to prevent them from showing Mr. Chaudhry's speech and the rowdy cheering and chanting against General Musharraf and the government. By midafternoon, no channel was reporting live from the event.
"We are encouraged and invigorated with the spirit of this reception," Ali Ahmed Kurd, one of lawyers representing the chief justice in his challenge against dismissal, speaking at Haripur, the main town on the way to Abbottabad and about halfway through the trip. "If things continue like this there will be no general or commander any more."
He railed against the military commanders running the country and moves by the government to clamp down on the news media. "If you close these channels, can you close off the people's voice from Karachi to Khyber?" he asked the crowd.
At Haripur, students, workers and retirees who turned out to hear the lawyers' speeches complained of many things, including rising prices, the increasing gap between rich and poor, the failing education system, support for the United States global campaign against terrorism and the injustice of military rule.
"The work of the army is to defend the country, not rule the country," said Amir Shehzad, 22, a chemical engineering student at Haripur. "There is a revolution happening. We are facing for many years a military dictatorship and people want democracy."
He said that his father, a security guard, supported the family on $60 a month and that the family could barely get by.
"It's very difficult for people to live because of inflation," Taher Mehmud, 25, a teacher, said. "Musharraf was welcomed at the beginning, but because of his policies people feel distanced from him."
Throughout the day, those interviewed along the route seemed to think that General Musharraf should not stay in power much longer. They called for elections, rather than a continuation of military rule.
"People do support the lawyers because they are talking about justice," said Mubarak Dad Abbassi, 57, a government employee from Rawalpindi, early in the day, adding of Mr. Chaudhry: "I do think there was an injustice to him. People say he should be reinstated and Musharraf should go."
Later in the morning, a 24-year-old shopkeeper, Muzzafar, in the town of Taxila, said: "It is difficult for Musharraf now, everybody wants change. We want someone who is a fair person, who controls the prices. That is the concern of the ordinary man. It seems the time is up for military rule."
At dusk, as the convoy passed Havelian, the last town on the way to Abbottabad, a banner-waving youth yelled, "The president is shameless!"
Salman Masood contributed reporting. -- Yoshie