At 1am on Saturday morning, Geo News and ARY One World stopped transmitting on all frequencies. Before the cessation of all transmission, Geo reported that due to immense pressure it had been ordered by the authorities of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to shut down its national and international transmissions, as it airs from the Emirates’ city of Dubai.Pakistan’s government has constantly been pressuring the UAE to shut down Geo News, and on Friday the Emirates’ government asked the channel’s administration to shut down. Geo TV President Imran Aslam said the channel was shutting down under government pressure. He said that talks to resume the channel’s transmissions in Pakistan were presently underway with the country’s government, but the conditions put forward by the government were unacceptable for the channel’s administration. Pakistan People’s Party leader Makhdoom Amin Fahim termed the closure of Geo News a “big dilemma”. He said access to information was the people’s right and no one had the authority to snatch that fundamental right from them.
All cable operators in Pakistan blocked Geo TV and its subsidiary channels on November 3, when President General Pervez Musharraf imposed a state of emergency.