Honestly speaking, emergency wouldn’t have noticed much by the populace of Pakistan, if private channels remained on air. Post-emergency situation has become genuinely grave for the people when they see dark screens or Indian dance channels instead of news channels like AAJ, GEO, or ARY One World.
Nothing serious happened against government during the rallies of Chief Justice, and nothing scared government during the arrival of Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto. Private channels kept on spewing different opinions and nation just enjoyed at home. People have developed quite a taste of enjoying the late night talk and discussion shows on private channels. But now as they are off air, things look quite gloomy for them.
As the channels went off-air, everybody smelled rat in the air. People started calling each other and to the offices of private channels and newspapers. Rumor factories were in full swing and still working actively. Weird and scary SMS were circulating in the air. Only PTV was there. People preferred to stay at home, and traffic was thin. Business also remained sluggish, and markets were quite deserted just after the announcement of imposition of emergency.
Things are still quite uncertain, as most of the opposition leaders are in police custody with lots of lawyers. Aitezaz Ahsan is also under arrest. Lawyers have called for strike on Monday, but the iron-clad solid control of government everywhere is hard to break and things are quite under the control of the military regime.
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