The broadcast was temporarily stopped with viewers alarmed, Iqbal returns to assure viewers
Minister of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, Ahsan Iqbal. PHOTO: APP
A live television interview with Federal Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal was briefly interrupted on Thursday when his video feed appeared to cut out after a voice was heard off-camera saying: “turn this off” (“band karo isay”).
When Iqbal returned to the air shortly after, the host told viewers that many had been alarmed by the abrupt interruption and asked if everything was okay. The minister assured viewers that “everything is fine.”
Iqbal said there was no problem, after which the presenter said he would not press the matter further and resumed the discussion, pointing out that there were only “eight to ten minutes” left in the programme.
The minister later made a clarification about He said he rejoined the interview shortly after and urged people to avoid “unnecessary politicization” of the incident.”
The clip of the outage circulated widely on social media, sparking speculation about the cause of the outage.
In a post on He said the minister rejoined the program shortly after and that the presenter was able to confirm the story.
Thanks for the messages of concern. There was a brief interruption during a live stream when someone who was nearby and arguing didn’t know I was live.
I rejoined the interview shortly after. I hope we can avoid unnecessary politicization of this.– Ahsan Iqbal (@betterpakistan) December 25, 2025
Information Minister Attaullah Tarar also said he had spoken to Iqbal and confirmed that “the children ran into the studio unexpectedly”, adding that the minister had rejoined the show and that “everything is fine”.
