The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) director general licencing has revealed to the Senate Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting that the licence issued to foreign TV channel Urdu One was fake.
The Senate body’s meeting was held on Monday and was chaired by Senator Kamil Ali Agha.
The statement of the DG shocked members of the committee and the PEMRA chairman could not satisfy them as he had no answer to their questions. The committee directed the information secretary to look into the matter and submit a report in the next session.
The committee criticised the progress of PEMRA and said news and entertainment channels violated the censor policy by airing “unethical advertisements”.
A delegation of senior actors also attended the meeting headed by Qavi Khan and demanded foreign channels be stopped from being aired.
The actors asked why had PEMRA not taken any action against Indian advertisements on local channels, saying India had not allowed Pakistani programmes to be aired in India after the incidents occurred on the Line of Control.
Senator Pervaiz Rashid said why did PEMRA officials not cancel the licence of the channel? To which, the chairman said PEMRA regulations did not allow cancellation of licences.
Rashid said the minister of information did not have time to answer the questions of the committee adding that such attitude would not be tolerated anymore.
Senator Farhatullah Babar suggested that the committee take the issue seriously and demanded that a special investigation be held.
Briefing the committee, PFUJ President Pervez Shaukat said journalists were facing life threats, 90 had been murdered but none of the assailants had been captured.
The committee directed the PUFJ and the information secretary to present a draft of the bill in the next session.
On remarks of Rashid, the committee demanded a detailed record of the speeches of political leaders from the PTV chairman.
