ISLAMABAD/LAHORE – The cable operators across the country on Saturday went on strike for a 24-hour strike against the reported confiscation of their equipments by different teams of Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) in different parts of the country.
All the operators shut their operations in Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad, Sukkur, Multan, Peshawar, Quetta and other areas. However, there were reports that some cable operators in small towns like Chakwal did not respond to the strike call given by their representative body.
Addressing a joint press conference earlier in the day at the National Press Club, Cable Operators Association of Pakistan (COAP) Chairman Qazi Afzal, Secretary-General Imran Nadeem and President Capital Zone Qazi Hameed-Ullah lashed out at the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) for the Friday’s action against the cable operators.
“We are going to observe a 24-four hour token strike starting from 12 noon but if the mis-behaviour against the cable operators is not changed, we will go on an indefinite strike,” Qazi Afzal said, adding that all channels would remain closed except the state-run.
He said all the cable operators were united and would never succumb to any illegal pressure by anyone. He accused the Geo TV network of misleading the Supreme Court and said it was filing fake complaints before the PEMRA. Responding to a question, he claimed that the Supreme Court did not passed orders for changing the sequence of TV channels. He was of the view that cable operators pay huge revenue to PEMRA and they believe in upholding the PEMRA’s laws.
They also warned that they would go ahead with their plan to shuffle the positioning of different TV channels after 48 hours. Meanwhile, the dispute generated over the broadcasting rights of the ICC World Cup affected the citizens. Although, the people interested in watching the cricket match Pakistan and Australia were pleased by the fact that the PTV was shown by all the cable operators but those fascinated by the news and entertainment channels suffered a lot.
They said public should not be sandwiched between the government, TV channels and others as all the stakeholders should resolve the issue amicably. A student claimed that he had to monitor private news channels as part of an assignment but the strike ruined his plans. Another said his cable operator switched off all the channels and was deprived off the much-awaited clash between Pakistan and Australia.
