By Sanjeev Sharma

New Delhi, Feb 13 (IANS): The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) on Friday issued a show-cause notice to TV channel News One for airing "derogatory/demeaning remarks" about Pakistan Federal Minister for Communications Murad Saeed without any editorial check in a programme, Dawn reported.

Saeed was singled out for particular praise by Prime Minister Imran Khan for the performance of his Ministry of Communications which ranked first in a ceremony on Thursday to celebrate the top 10 best performing federal ministries, the report said.

The notice reproduced the comments made in the programme where Pakistani anchor Gharida Farooqui questioned her panelists on what was the "(real) reason" for Saeed's ministry ranking first. A panelist, journalist Mohsin Baig, responded that he did not know but the reason was "written in Reham Khan's book".

Another panelist, senior journalist Iftikhar Ahmed, said: "Who is unaware of the performance and the allegations against this man at the top (Saeed)."

Meanwhile, analyst Tariq Mehmood said that some things were "self-explanatory" and asked the anchor to not prod over it since Pemra was watching.

"A book has been mentioned as well. There is nothing hidden about this that Imran Khan likes him a lot and he is a very hard working minister, is very close to Imran Khan and has once again proved that he has left all others behind in performance. So what more do you want me to say," Mehmood said, the report said.

As per media reports, Imran Khan's ex-wife Reham Khan had allegedly revealed in her autobiography that Imran, as well as Pakistani actor Hamza Ali Abbasi and PTI leader Murad Saeed were homosexuals and were "in a relationship".