Suspension of licences: decision against TV channel termed 'illegal'

As many as five private members of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) on Tuesday suspended three television channels licences run by the Geo TV Network. However, a spokesman for the Pemra told Business Recorder that the meeting was illegal, as procedural formalities for the board meeting were not fulfilled.
"So, all the decisions taken by five private members have no legal propriety," said the Pemra spokesman. He said the Pemra has constituted a two-member committee to run day-to-day affairs of the authority which is functional, adding that the allegations that the committee is not functional are completely baseless. The five-member committee, in its decision, however, ruled that Geo News, Geo Entertainment and Geo Tez licences stand suspended and their offices should be sealed with immediate effect and a final decision on the cancellation of licences would be taken on May 28. We have sent four licences of Geo Network to Ministry of Interior for security clearance, the members added.
After the 97th scheduled meeting the Authority, which was attended by only five private members, Mian Shams, one of the private members said the meeting's recommendations have been forwarded to the Council of Complaints with directions to submit a reply before May 28th meeting of the authority. Pemra is an independent entity and will make decisions on its own, he added. "Pemra is an independent organisation, and it would have been better if a government representative attended today's meeting as well and helped us to come up with a decision," Mian Shams said.
The orders have been issued to the DG operation PEMRA to seal the offices of Geo News, Geo Entertainment and Geo Tez. The authority members said the recommendations have been sent to the CoC and were expected to be returned in a week's time. After receiving the recommendations, a special committee will be formed to take a final decision regarding Geo's licences. Israr Abbasi said the quorum of the meeting was complete as per the Pemra law. He hoped the decision taken by the members would be implemented in letter and sprit.
He alleged that the government representatives want to save their skin so they did not attend the meeting. Replying to a question, Abbasi said there were allegations that Geo was getting foreign funding so the authority members decided to send four licences of the network to ministry of interior for security clearance. As many as seven government representative were not present in the meeting, the private members of the authority who attended the meeting include, Israr Abbasi from Azad Kashmir, Shama Parveen from Balochistan, Zeba Hussain from Sindh and Fariha Iftikhar from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.