The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) on Monday issued a show cause notice to Bol News over the content of Dr Shahid Masood’s show.
The media watchdog in its notice said that the programme ‘Live with Dr Shahid Masood’ discussed sensitive information “recklessly and carelessly”. The notice referred to an episode of the programme aired on January 24, 2017, on Bol News which discussed civil-military relations.
The regulatory authority asked the channel to reply to the notice by February 2.
The notice came after Finance Minister Ishaq Dar filed a complaint against the channel and the anchor.
According to PEMRA’s and Dar’s notices, Dr Masood in his programme stated that two ministers, one of whose name starts with a ‘K’ and the other’s with a ‘D’, were called to the General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi recently. Dr Masood identified one of them as “dealing with the treasury” and the other as “related to defence”.
Earlier on Monday, Dar sued both the anchor and the channel for Rs 1 billion for airing and anchoring a malicious programme to defame him. The notice said that the episode passed conjecture and libellous and defamatory statements to damage the minister’s personality and character.
“He made a completely false statement hinting at an alleged meeting between the finance minister and Rawalpindi (GHQ), whereas no such meeting had taken place at all. The story was utterly false and absolutely fictitious. The anchor’s fabrication had the malicious intent to defame and disgrace the finance minister,” Dar’s notice said.