Pakistan Broadcasters Association strongly condemned the government's decision to allow the telecast of Indian content channels in Pakistan, in a resolution passed in an emergent meeting held in Karachi.
The meeting reiterated their demand to disallow transmission of any foreign channel in Pakistan that telecast programmes in Urdu and its regional languages or dialects.
Members of PBA also criticised Pemra's alleged explanation that these channels are transmitting from other countries and not from India on grounds that the substance and content is mostly Indian. It is very strange that media industry, which is still in its nascent stage, is being forced to face the onslaught of Indian channels in the name of healthy competition, the meeting stressed, while other local industries like engineering, textiles etc are given full protection by not permitting any imports from India.
The members voiced their serious concern on the fact that the Pemra Ordinance Amendment Bill, which was passed by the National Assembly after a long delay, is still waiting for the President's authentication to make it a law. The meeting demanded the matter to be expedited at a fast pace.
The meeting, chaired by Mir Shakeel-ur-Rahman, was attended by Mohammad Iqbal of ARY Digital, Ghazanfar Ali of Indus Vision, Arshad A. Zuberi of Aaj TV, Athar Kazi of KTN, Duraid Qureshi of HUM TV, Taher A. Khan of TV One, Syed Safaraz Hussain Shah of Apna Channel, Ilyas Shakir of Dhoom TV, Arshad Anis of AVT Khyber and Nasir Jamal of HUM TV.-PR