3 yrs on, Sharif faces blackout

The interview with Shahbaz, who planned to return home ending over three-year exile, was cancelled yesterday due to government pressure minutes before it was to be telecast by ary digital channel, media reports said today. According to the channel8217;s management, they were 8216;8216;threatened8217;8217; by the personnel of security agencies that their Karachi office would be shut down and their staff picked up if they did not cancel the interview. Shahbaz planned to arrive along with his wife and daughters from Dubai.

Shahbaz, who was exiled along with his brother and ousted PM Nawaz Sharif to Jeddah by the government in December 2000, said the channel was forced to cancel the interview at the behest of President Pervez Musharraf.

The pressure to cancel the programme as well as ban on government advertisements to certain newspapers speaks for the freedom of the press in Pakistan, he was quoted as saying by The Nation daily. 8216;8216;The government cannot stop me from coming back,8217;8217; he said, charging that the rulers 8216;8216;had lost their senses8217;8217;.