Pakistan’s largest TV station, Geo TV, has been allowed back on air after talks with the military on demands it make changes in political coverage, two officials who work for the channel’s media group told Reuters on Wednesday.

After Geo TV, Pakistan’s most popular station, was taken off the air across much of the country at the end of March.

According to the two staff members, the military had pressed cable operators to pull the channel. The staff members, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Pakistan military pressed the channel to cease favorable coverage of ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and to stop any criticism of the Supreme Court and the “establishment”.

The “establishment” is a commonly used euphemism for the military in Pakistan.

Written instructions by Geo management to staff last week that were reviewed by Reuters spelled out “key editorial points that we have to manage and implement” to be restored to the airwaves.

The two sources, employees of The Jang Group of Newspapers, Geo’s parent company, said the company had reluctantly agreed to most of the military’s demands, although there was no final deal confirmed and the situation was in flux, Reuters reported.

“As for the deal or tough conditions, we are following them and Geo has been restored. That restoration is the result of obeying those dictations,” one of the sources said on Wednesday.

Pakistan’s largest television network was forced off air in over 80 per cent of the country at the end of last month, as cable operators began to block the airing rights of Geo TV.

Reports indicated that what began as the revoking of airing privileges in cantonment areas and defense housing authority neighborhoods soon spread to all parts of the country.

However, Geo TV remained on air throughout much of Islamabad, the capital, where most diplomats, government officials and foreign journalists are based.

Earlier this month, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) expressed concern over reports that Geo TV was not accessible throughout parts of the country including Karachi, Lahore, and Multan.

Managing Director Azhar Abbas told CPJ that the channel has faced arbitrary blockages and changing channel numbers for several years.

"The arbitrary suspension of Geo TV on cable TV is a direct assault on Pakistan's constitutionally guaranteed right to access information," said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Steven Butler.

"It's outrageous that authorities are either unable to find or too frightened to name those powerful enough to orchestrate the blocking of news distribution."

The New York Times meanwhile reported that the TV channel had found itself on the wrong side of the Pakistani military after its critical coverage of Islamabad being added to the Financial Action Task Force’s terror financing watch list.

Reuters reported that Geo TV Network President Imran Aslam declined to answer questions about any military involvement in the shutdown or whether any deal had been made or was in the works.

But a Geo spokesperson said in a statement: “Geo will always strive to provide both sides of the story and an independent editorial policy for which it has suffered in every regime, military and civilian.

“If we ever surrender on that independence we would rather shut down the channel ourselves,” added the spokesperson, who would not answer questions about any negotiations with the military.

The military’s press office did not respond to written questions and phone calls by Reuters about whether it had pressured the cable operators. It also did not comment on the allegations that the military, or its powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) wing, made demands on Geo to alter its coverage or secured agreement to make any changes.

Geo began reappearing on Tuesday in approximately half the country but had not been restored completely, network president Aslam said on Wednesday.

Aslam had said last week that the channel had been effectively blocked in about 80 percent of the country and had lost millions of dollars in revenue. “There is no official reason as to who has done it, why it has been done,” he told Reuters at that time. He gave no further details on Wednesday.