Cable TV operators offer exclusive channel to clergy
PESHAWAR- Cable television operators have offered to assign one channel to the clerics to preach and propagate Islam and fine those of the cable operators found involved in promoting obscenity and violating Islamic values.
The offer was made at a press conference addressed by office bearers of the newly-launched Cable Television Association that includes 17 cable operators.
Its president Zubair Khalid said that cable operators would open up one new channel for religious teachings and would desist from violating social and religious values. Those who violated the decision, he said, would be fined Rs 50,000. He said that the cable operators would strictly adhere to the rules and regulations of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA). All programmes, he said, would be in accordance with the enforced copyrights and other laws of the land.
Mr Khalid said the executive members of the association would also serve as monitors to observe the cable operations and take notice of violations. He disclosed that more than Rs 60 million had been invested in the sector after the PTA granted them licences and the livelihood of more than 1,500 families depended on the business. He also appealed to the government to take notice of the threats of the religious parties.
On the other hand, leader of Jamiatul Ulema-e-Islam Maulana Aboul Ak-bar Chitrali has, in a press release, termed the statement of a federal government spokesman as ridiculous and said that the religio-political parties had moral and legal protection to carry out their action against cable operator.
He said that, Pakistan had been created in the name of Islam and any action or decision taken against any un-Islamic act could not be deemed as against Pakistan. “These threats have no value for those of us who have practically taken part in jihad in Afghanistan and Kashmir and we cannot be browbeaten by these threats. Let the government test us.”
Source: The News
Date:7/22/2000
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