The statement published in The News on April 27 that PEMRA rules were intentionally amended to harm the Geo group are absolutely baseless and blatant distortion of the facts.
It is worth mentioning that cross media restriction is applied in most parts of the developed world which bar print media owners to enter into electronic media business. This very clause also existed in initial PEMRA Ordinance 2002. Since, the restriction of cross media was lifted through legislation, it then became obligatory to determine certain cap on number of broadcast media licenses to be issued to any media group in order to avoid undue concentration of media. This is an international practice in vogue in USA, UK, France and number of other countries.
