YouTube services restored after brief shutdown during Imran Khan's Peshawar jalsa

YouTube services that were shut down briefly during Imran Khan's Peshawar jalsa were restored on Tuesday.

Islamabad :YouTube services that were shut down briefly during Imran Khan's Peshawar jalsa were restored on Tuesday. Net Blocks said that its metrics showed that YouTube was disrupted on multiple internet providers in Pakistan, reported Geo News. Internet tracker Net Blocks tweeted, "Metrics confirm that YouTube is disrupted on multiple internet providers in #Pakistan as former prime minister Imran Khan live streams; the restrictions come despite the lifting of PEMRA's ban on Khan's speeches by the Islamabad High Court."

The disruption comes as former PM Imran Khan made a live broadcast to the public, despite a ban issued by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA). Ahead of Imran Khan's address, multiple users had started complaining streaming website was not working for them. In response to the reported blockage, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) turned to Facebook and Twitter to air its chairman's speech.

#YouTubeDown also emerged as a top trend on the microblogging website Twitter, reported Geo News. PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry claimed that the country has "officially turned into a banana republic" after barring Imran Khan's speeches on channels and YouTube. The blockage comes after the PTI chairman, earlier today, said he'd had enough of the Pakistan Democratic Movement's (PDM) "cabal of crooks" propagating to malign him, reported Geo News.

PDM -- the ruling parties who have formed the government after ousting Khan from the prime minister's office in April -- severely criticised Khan's recent comments against the military and its top brass. The armed forces were also livid following the PTI chairman's Faisalabad jalsa speech, where he said that if a "patriotic" army chief were appointed, he would not spare the incumbent rulers, reported Geo News.

In response, Khan tweeted that he was following the "intense propaganda" launched by the PDM's "cabal of crooks" against him, which stems from them being "petrified of PTI's soaring popularity". "Today in [the] Peshawar jalsa, I will give [a] proper reply to all those who have deliberately been distorting my words to malign me. Enough is enough," the former prime minister warned.

Imran Khan, who is embroiled in the political slugfest with the coalition government said Shehbaz Sharif's government has taken media censorship to fascistic levels. "Imported govt has taken media and journalists' censorship and persecution to fascistic levels. Now Bol has been suspended simply because it gave us coverage. The message to all media houses is to blackout the largest & most popular national pol party from mainstream media. Unacceptable," Khan tweeted.

Pakistan is one of the world's deadliest countries for journalists, according to Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Under the guise of protecting journalism, Pakistani law is used to censor any criticism of the government and the armed forces. The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), created in 2002, is concerned less with regulating the media sector than with regulating the

As a result of these ambiguously worded laws, journalists who cross the implicit lines dictated by the authorities are exposed to heavy administrative and criminal penalties - up to three years in prison for "sedition", for example. (ANI)