KARACHI/ISLAMABAD – Cable operators on Friday decided to go on a 24-hour strike after the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) enforcement teams in a crack down across the country seized the systems of about 78 cable TV networks which were defying the Supreme Court’s orders about the broadcasting rights of ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 matches.
All Pakistan Cable Operators President Khalid Arain, while addressing a press conference in Karachi, said they would stop transmitting all the TV channels, except those which are state-run, from Saturday (today) at 12pm, against the raids conducted by the PEMRA.
Earlier, the PEMRA raided various cable operators’ offices on repeated complaints about violation of orders passed the Supreme Court. It had received a list of nearly 100 cable TV operators from the legal counsel of Geo Super, accusing them of running illegal satellite TV channels showing ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 matches other than the Geo Super.
The counsel also informed about various cable TV distribution networks involved in buffering and shuffling of channel position of Geo Super in complete disregard to the orders of apex Court and the PEMRA orders communicated from time to time.
The top regulatory authority while taking cognizance of the violations had already served a three-day warning notices to all the accused cable TV operators while its staff continued the surprise checking.
