Pemra issues letter to save its skin in SC
ISLAMABAD: Pemra was silent for 33 days after the April 19 attack on senior journalist Hamid Mir and subsequent closure of Geo, but on Thursday it wrote a ‘clear’ letter to the cable operators to restore Geo channels to their original positions.
However, this letter was written to show only a fake performance to the Supreme Court which has summoned Pemra and sought its reply.On the ground, no cable operator in Pakistan has implemented this order of Pemra and Geo and its channels remained off air or on the last numbers till late last night.
It was also clear that both Pemra and the cable operators were not serious about restoring the channel because some angels and spirits were flying around them and were forcing them to continue violating the law and the Constitution, especially Articles 19 and 19-A of the Constitution.
The media watchdog earlier wrote a letter on May 2, 2014 to restore Geo’s position but this letter was ridiculous and was supporting and favouring the point of view of cable operators.
Supreme Court orders in the past to restore the transmission of Geo News or other Geo channels were never implemented and Pemra always gave wrong reports and assurances to the apex court benches hearing these cases.
Even after 12 hours on Thursday after issuance of the Pemra letter, which was meant to save its skin in the Supreme Court and to give an impression as if it was fully vigilant and performing its regulatory duties very well, not even 1 percent of cable operators had restored the transmission of Geo News and other Geo channels.
At a few places where Geo could be viewed, it was thrown on the last numbers by the cable networks in order to confuse the viewers and inflict losses on the group. Not only this, in these very few areas where Geo was available on the last numbers, a majority of viewers could not watch because of low channel carrying capacity of their TV sets which is often less than 50 while Geo is thrown on numbers above 80.
Even in the past, during the last two regimes, when Geo was closed or its position was thrown to the last numbers, the Supreme Court used to pass orders to restore the Geo transmission to its original numbers but these orders of apex court were never implemented.
Pemra used to submit fake and incorrect reports to the apex court regarding the channel’s transmission but the channel would only be restored when the government of the day or our real rulers/angels would allow it.
Independent media and journalists are really worried that even at this time the government and Pemra may succeed in intentionally misguiding the apex court and any court orders to restore Geo and its other channels would not be implemented.
The PML-N government remained silent for 33 days despite five complaints by Geo and the Jang Group that its channels were being put off air.
The angels managed dirty and false propaganda on “selected” TV channels that the present government was favouring Geo in the present situation. There were many fools to believe this false statement without even comprehending that the PML-N government was not only silent on the closure of Geo News, it never took any action against cable operators for illegally and unconstitutionally blocking Geo. In fact at some instances it facilitated such cable operators.
Despite repeated requests, the PML-N government remained shamelessly inactive to get Geo restored on the cable networks and allowed unconstitutional forces to come in direct contact with cable operators and compromise its own writ.
Though Pemra overall remained inactive to get its Thursday’s letter implemented as it was merely written to show fake performance to the Supreme Court during the present hearing, few officers who started contacting the cable operators in the field to get the channels restored were threatened.
These officers received calls from blank numbers. Later they came to know that some secret people had reached the cable operators and asked them to refuse to obey orders to restore Geo or its other channels.
At some places, the cable operators informed Pemra officials that immediately after the delivery of the Pemra letter or verbal orders to restore Geo, they started receiving calls from terrorist and extremist organisations not to restore Geo.
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