PTI Chairman and former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s popularity has gone through the roof ever since he was forcefully ousted from power. He remains Pakistan’s most popular political leader, beating even PML-N supreme leader and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who has been in politics longer than Imran Khan.
Sunday, Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan both gave important addresses regarding relief efforts for the country’s flood victims. Nawaz Sharif appealed to his party workers to generously support flood affectees across Pakistan.
PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif emphasized the need for extending support to flood-hit victims instead of focusing on other matters and added that his daughter and PML-N Vice-President Maryam Nawaz will also review the ongoing relief work and visit flood-hit areas.
Read more: Nawaz Sharif rejects claims of being disappointed with PM Shehbaz’s performance
Interestingly, Nawaz Sharif’s speech was actively covered by the country’s leading news channels, including the state-owned PTV. Pertinent to mention, Nawaz Sharif has multiple corruption charges leveled against him and he has not returned to Pakistan from London since 2019.
Weldon @MaryamNSharif pic.twitter.com/c2iOfhrquF
— Sabir Shakir (@ARYSabirShakir) August 28, 2022
Imran Khan’s media coverage
On the other hand, Imran Khan on Sunday, while revealing details on the telethon for fundraising, said that it is a testing time for all Pakistanis after being hit by a major flood that brought more disasters than the 2010 flood.
Imran Khan appealed to Pakistanis including overseas nationals to participate in the telethon as the funds will be distributed among the flood victims across the country.
Needless to say, the views for the channel covering Imran Khan’s speech on Youtube were more than the views of all the channels covering Nawaz Sharif’s speechs combined. According to the details, Imran Khan’s speech on Youtube was watched over 60,000 times, whereas, Nawaz Sharif was viewed 19,000 times on YouTube channels of nine mainstream channels.
آج عمران خان نے ٹیلیتھوں کے لیے میسج دیا جوکہ صرف Youtube نیا پاکستان چینل پر ابھی تک 60,000 سے زیادہ مرتبہ دیکھا گیا جبکہ نواز شریف کو 9 مینسٹریم چینلز کے Youtube چینل پرکل ملا کر 19000 مرتبہ … pic.twitter.com/HZzNbvM3iU
— Asher Bajwa 📶 (@asherbajwa) August 28, 2022
Important to note that Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) imposed a ban on the live telecast of Imran Khan’s speeches after the former prime minister criticized police and other state institutions in a speech.
Read more: Imran Khan springs into action to collect funds for flood victims
PTI will file a plea in the Islamabad High Court to show PTI supremo Imran Khan’s fundraising telethon for flood-hit people live on all TV channels and will also request to remove PEMRA’s ban on showing live speech of Imran Khan on TV channels.