Lahore/Peshawar, Nov.19 : The Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) and lawyers today called for a free media and free and fair elections and a lifting of the 16-day-old state of emergency.

CPNE made these demands by passing unanimous resolutions in a meeting in Lahore, presided over by its president Arif Nizami. The editors of national newspapers attended the meeting.

The meeting passing various resolutions condemned shutting down of transmissions of Geo News and ARY and ban on advertisements of the Jang Group. The meeting demanded resumption of the transmissions of all news channels without interruption and ending curbs on media.

The editors’ body in a resolution rejected the amended PEMRA ordinance adding that free media and free and fair elections are impossible under the emergency and demanded end of emergency to allow the media to play its role freely.

In Peshwar, lawyers staged a protest in front of Peshawar Press Club against the curbs on the media and suspension of Geo television transmissions.

The Peshawar High Court Bar Association organized the protest in which participants, holding different placards on the occasion, chanted anti-government slogans.

Speakers on the occasion said after crushing the judiciary the government was now trying to suppress the media with an aim to keep the people uninformed about the facts.

Expressing solidarity with the journalists, the lawyers demanded for lifting the ban on media.  (ANI)