KARACHI, Jan 5: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has lifted a ban on five channels of the Star TV channel package, officials told Dawn here on Saturday.

The channels from which the ban has been lifted are ESPN, Star Sports, National Geographic, Fox News and Sky News.

Following the state-monitored blackout of PTV in some parts of India, the PTA, as a tit-for-tat measure, on Dec 29 banned all Indian TV channels beamed through satellite in Pakistan as well as beamed by Star Satellite Channels on the plea that they were propagating material injurious to the security of Pakistan, thus violating the conditions of the licence issued by the PTA to cable TV operators.

The officials said the cable operators had been allowed to show those five channels of the STAR TV channel package which were informative and which did not indulge in a propaganda campaign against Pakistan. They added that the other Indian channels were still banned.