No TV anchor, and few newspaper editors, examined what lay behind the charisma and the bombast. True, Khan is allergic to criticism, but was tolerance ever part of his CV? However, given its narrow parliamentary majority, it is doubtful if the PTI government could have made a noisy and exuberant media come to heel so quickly, had it not received open-ended support from the “third umpire”. By providing endless coverage to Khan and his single-item, anti-corruption agenda, our TV channels and newspapers helped catapult him to power, albeit via a highly questionable election. Perhaps he ought to remember the abuse he deployed against his opponents. So in a sense, the media has only itself to blame for its present predicament.

However, while Trump and Johnson are regularly lambasted on liberal TV channels, in newspapers and in social media, we in Pakistan are witnessing an escalating crackdown on critical comment.In his long campaign, Khan was helped by a media that boosted his image uncritically.In a sense, the gloves are off, leaving little doubt about who’s in charge. I doubt very much that Imran Khan would tolerate such barbs.By arrangement with Dawn. The reality is that the public prefers flamboyant figures like Boris Johnson, Donald Trump and Imran Khan to grey, anonymous politicians. Thus his government’s media crackdown continues without check. The electronic media regulator, Pemra, is a creature of the security state, ready to axe any broadcast that might annoy the powerful. Indeed, I recall two TV panellists urging the “third umpire” to raise his finger. Editors are more careful than ever to avoid giving offence to power centres like the executive, the judiciary and the security establishment.

The Queen is a regular target for stand-up comics who also mock everybody from politicians to the Pope. As the pithy Punjabi expression has it: “Hore chupo!”, roughly translated as “You asked for it!”Another issue here is that many media house owners don’t want to annoy powerful politicians, judges and generals.So we go through yet another cycle of repression and censorship that will, hopefully, be followed by resistance and revolt.The Guardian cartoonist, Steve Bell, regularly depicts him as a human backside half-covered with a mop of blond hair. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan (Photo: File) In an interview during his recent, much-hyped trip to Washington, Imran Khan claimed that the media in Pakistan is “much freer” than its UK counterpart.Really, Mr Khan?Given his background, Imran Khan should be aware of just how free the British media is.Khan is perceived as having the establishment and the judiciary on his side, a luxury neither of his two predecessors enjoyed. But had either the PPP or the PML-N governments pulled one of his many interviews off the air, he would have gone ballistic, accusing his rivals of censorship and authoritarian practices.

For example, the newly elected Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has been called a liar, a cheat and a buffoon by irreverent columnists and editorial writers for years. Opposition voices are being stifled as interviews with prominent politicians are pulled in mid-sentence. But it could have been worse as Bell’s drawings of David Cameron, the ex-Prime Minister, show. Johnson’s colourful private life is often in the news, and his recent spat with his partner in which neighbours called the police made the headlines.At the time of his months-long Islamabad dharna, TV channels gave the chaotic scenes around Khans container 24/7 coverage. However, he knows full well that the British media enjoys a degree of freedom that we in Pakistan can only dream of.But Khan is not the only politician to benefit from a fawning media driven by the search for higher ratings and increased circulation. For them, the bottom line is what counts, not abstract ideals like the freedom of speech. To his credit, another panellist, Zahid Hussain, walked off the show, declaring that he was not prepared to listen to such blatant calls for military intervention.In his long campaign, Imran Khan was helped by a media that boosted his image uncritically. Of course, nylon nail-in anchors Suppliers I am not suggesting for a moment that the Pakistani media should resort to such scurrilous comments and images for our Prime Minister