Shock as former president’s TV interview taken off air

Pakistan's largest private broadcaster abruptly took an interview with former president Asif Ali Zardari off air shortly after it began, deepening fears of increasing censorship in a country already among the most dangerous in the world for media.

Geo News did not give a reason for why it cut the interview -- mere minutes after it started -- with Zardari, who is also the widower of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

There have been accusations in recent years of the country's powerful military putting pressure on the media to stop coverage critical of its policies -- allegations it denies.

Zardari and his Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) have a tense relationship with the military, and he is currently facing corruption charges as part of a wider crackdown.

Hamid Mir, the interviewer, complained on Twitter about increasing censorship in Pakistan after the show was taken off the air on Monday night.

"Those who stopped it (the interview) have no courage to accept publically that they stopped it," he tweeted.

He apologised to viewers, adding: "it's easy to understand who stopped it? We are not living in a free country."

Mir made international headlines in 2014 after surviving multiple gunshot wounds in an attack he blamed on the shadowy Inter Services Intelligence agency (ISI), Pakistan's top spy organisation.