Pemra receives complaints against ‘Lottery’ schemes of TV channels
KARACHI- The general public has demanded an end to the ‘Telephone Calling Lottery’ started by local private television channels in collaboration with Pakistan Telecom.
The Regional Office of Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra), Sindh, has also received a number of complaints from the general public seemed perturbed due to rising telephone bills.
“Call on 0900-service code to the channels costs Rs 24 per minute and the operators keeps telling the caller to wait,” a complainant told the Pemra officials.
Referring to the complaints, the officials said that call on 0900-service costs to an average Rs 200 to 250 to any intending caller and mainly the calls are made by the children.
“There are laws passed by the Authority that restrict a station from broadcasting material that promotes a lottery, advertisement that perpetuates a fraud,” said Pemra in a statement.
An official of the Pemra said that deliberations were underway by the Authority to deal with the issue as number of people approaching them was growing day by day.
Around 50 written applications and hundreds of telephone calls have been received by the Pemra to find a solution against the Lottery,” the official told sources here on May 2, 2003.
Source: Business Recorder
Date:5/4/2003
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