President Pervez Musharraf lifted the state of emergency he imposed, yet Geo TV, Pakistan's most popular private TV station, remains off cable TV.
With a national election looming on Feb. 18, many say the polls can't be free or fair unless Geo gets back on the air.
"The ban on Geo has no justification at all," says director of Pakistan's Human Rights Commission, I. A. Rehman, adding that "controlling the media, amounts to manipulating votes."
In a country of 165 million, where only 30 per cent of the people are literate, television plays a crucial role.
"The majority of people don't rely on newspapers or the Internet because they cannot read," explains Alam, Geo's Islamabad bureau chief. "They have to rely on TV."
And most rely on Geo.
Surveys show more than 35 per cent of all viewers watch Geo, while just 28 per cent opt for state-run PTV. And 68 per cent of all viewers find Geo more credible, while only 11 per cent favour PTV.
What exactly has the TV channel done to incur the wrath of the Musharraf government?
"We've informed people about their rights, and kept them informed about what the government is doing," says Alam.
Occasionally that has taken the government by surprise.
In October, for example, Geo informed its viewers that Musharraf was then on the verge of announcing emergency law.
Within four hours the story shot around the world and by 2 a.m., they later learned, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was on the phone persuading Musharraf to back off.
He did.
"That's impact," says Alam.
What has to be done for Geo to get back on the air?
Geo could return to cable if it agreed to sign a "code of conduct" issued to broadcasters by the government after emergency laws were invoked.
But Geo can't do that.
There are broad demands in the code it could not honour, including a section that commits signatories not to air content that casts, "aspersions against the president or security or defence institutions and judiciary of Pakistan."
"Signing the code of conduct would be the equivalent of signing over your lifeline to the government," says Zarfarullah Khan, executive director of the Centre for Civic Education, a non-governmental body that monitors news coverage.
One of the regulations, he points out, demands that television stations not broadcast "live transmissions."
Why not?
"Because they (the government) want to sift through the material first," says Khan. "Then they'll decide what they want to hide and what they want to show."
Detailed monitoring by the Centre for Civic Education shows government TV caters to government views, Khan says.
"PTV is under the direct control of the Ministry of Information. It's mainly there for the government supporting parties."
As for Musharraf's professions of democratic faith, Alam says they're "a hoax.
"The media here isn't free and fair. It's gagged and censored."
Senior newspaper journalists also speak of "intense pressure" swirling about their offices. Articles are being held. Areas of legitimate inquiry are sometimes prohibited.