(AKI - By Syed Saleem Shahzad) - Pakistan's newly elected coalition government led by the Pakistan Peoples Party made freedom of the media a major issue when it took two TV news channels off the air. The channels, ARY One World TV and GEO TV, confirmed they had been taken off air after showing footage of the beating of former chief minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim by Pakistan Peoples Party workers in the provincial legislature assembly.The officials of the both channels confirmed that their networks were off air throughout the country after airing the footage of the former chief minister and the newly elected member of the provincial assembly, Arbab Ghulam Rahim, by the PPP workers.
He was dragged and beaten on Saturday when he entered in the provincial assembly to take oath. Sources said his life was saved only when he sought refuge insidet the parliament and was sent home under the police protection without taking the oath.
This morning he tried again to take his oath of office but the Pakistan Peoples Party workers, who had overwhelmed security arrangements at the provincial assembly, grabbed him and beaten him with shoes.
All of Pakistan's TV channels showed the footage but the government chose to close the two major news channels ARY and Geo TV. "This is the first government in the history of Pakistan which has defamed so quickly,” the news director of SunBiz TV, Muhammad Tahir, told AKI. The minister for information Sherry Rahman was unavailable for comment on the government's action.