Bachchan poster banned in Karachi

The poster is an advert for a telephone quiz contest based on the Who Wants to be a Millionaire? programme that Bachchan used to host in India.

The contest is due to start on Monday, Pakistan's Independence Day.

Bachchan's picture alongside the flag was an "objectionable act", a Karachi official told the Reuters news agency.

A place alongside the flag "is reserved only for our own heroes," Mirza Asif Baig told Reuters.

'A mistake'

The phone quiz is organised by a company called Telefun.

Telefun's marketing manager, Abdul Qadir, says it will comply with the ban.

"We have already started disassociating Bachchan's picture from the national flag," Mr Qadir told Reuters. "It was a mistake."

Bachchan was not involved in the Telefun contest.

Who Wants to be a Millionaire? was dropped in India in January after Bachchan fell ill and needed abdominal surgery.