FBI probing Pak TV channel
ISLAMABAD.. Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMA) held a public healing to issue Direct To Home (DTH) licences here on Saturday.
Pemra Chairman Mian Javed chaired the hearing.
Pemra had advertised the hearing which was attended licences, and many Pemra Chairman Mian Javed addressing the gathering said the hearing was being held under Authority’s Ordinance No X101-2002 Section 42(2).
The DTH licences are being is-sued at the f*t time, as the neighbouring country has also started this service, he said adding that if ‘we don’t start the service now, the DTH of our neighbour will flourish in Pakistan’.
He also answered the queries of the participants of the hearing. A participant drew his attention to an article carried by The Washington Post, in which the paper had said that ARY had links with al-Qaeda and Taliban, and the FBI was probing the matter. In the same corn~ was in litigation with the government, and many banks, and the arrest warrants against the owners of the company were out for a long time. The Pemra Chairman said that the licence to a company would be issued after clearance from Home Ministry. Another participant said that ARY channel was telecasting some substandard and obscene programmes, which were being produced in India and Pakistan. These programmes are so obscene that no sane person can watch them with his family. One wonders that as to why the government is issuing licences to such companies, he said and requested the Pemra chairman to put his observations. In reply, Main Javed said all the local and international TV channels including ARY and Geo would have to obtain Pemra clearance before showing their programmes on DTH and produce their telecasts according to Pemra rules. He added that the government had banned the Indian channels to clean the TV.
Source: The News
Date:11/9/2003
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