Dubai asks Geo TV to drop shows or lose licence

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Pakistan's Dubai-based private Geo TV network has been warned by the UAE city administration that it could lose its licence if it does not drop two talk shows, apparently under pressure from authorities here due to its support to the lawyers' movement for reinstatement of deposed judges.

Geo TV President Imran Aslam said the Dubai authorities had informed him last night that the network would lose its licence if "Capital Talk", a show hosted by Hamid Mir, and "Meray Mutabiq", anchored by Shahid Masood, were not taken off the air.

Officials at Dubai Media City, where the Geo network is based, said these programmes "threatened the UAE's relations with a friendly country".

'The News' daily, owned by the Jang group that also operates the Geo network, reported that there was "immense pressure" from Pakistani authorities on the administration of Dubai to stop the transmission.

Information Minister Sherry Rehman has said that the new Pakistan People's Party-led government has not asked the United Arab Emirates to act against Geo.

Reports said Geo had been ordered to quit Dubai within 48 hours and that the UAE authorities had cancelled visas of all Geo TV staffers and asked them to leave.

Geo News, Pakistan's most popular Urdu news channel, has an extensive network of offices across the country but beams its programmes from studios in Dubai. All channels of the Geo network were shut down for over two months by the Dubai authorities during last year's emergency.

Geo's management was told by the Dubai authorities that the programmes of Mir and Masood were damaging ties between Dubai and the "friendly and brotherly" country of Pakistan.

The Dubai administration made a similar request about a month ago, saying all programmes supporting restoration of deposed judges should be stopped by the channel.

Geo's management has told the Dubai authorities that the channel is serving the Urdu-speaking community around the world and providing the latest information about events in Pakistan "without bias or ill-will".

The Dubai administration was also told that Geo "never had any intention to damage relations between the two countries" and had never done anything to create any misunderstanding between them.

The Geo network also told the Dubai administration that if it insisted on stopping the transmission, the organisation would move its operations to either Britain or Hong Kong as it "was committed to inform its viewers about the real situation in Pakistan".