Of course, with the way in which power crisis is growing every year - with the consumer unsure and unclear of how much the Wapda and the KESC are together responsible for the frustrations and woes of the people.
The power crisis has been a major story on the news channels, but at the same time it has been a source of frustrating TV viewers by denying them, at varying times their favourite programmes or news and current affairs shows. And that too with so much happening in the country.
The power crisis, particularly with reference to the closure of business that has been announced by the government and which has been resisted by the business community, generally, is a recurring theme in the news and current affairs programmes. From whatever is said and we understand, it seems that it is going to be a long night of darkness - and power cuts and failures will remain integral to our lives.
Even though the power crisis cuts across the very essence of our lives, and hits just about everything we do, for the purpose of this column, one needs to emphasise that TV viewing also suffers. It happened last year, and it is happening once again. And there is nothing we can do, dear readers.
CHANNELS WENT OFF THE AIR:
It has been a major focus of many discussions throughout the country that three TV channels went off the air for hours on 5th May, and thereby "depriving viewers in Karachi and southern Sindh of the live coverage of the caravan of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry proceeding to Lahore from Islamabad". Viewers were grossly inconvenienced and upset (read angry) that the transmission of the channels - Geo, ARY and Aaj - was suspended in Karachi, Hyderabad and Nawabshah at about 5.30 pm. In Karachi, said a report, the channels could be watched after about two hours.
The PEMRA Chairman, Iftikhar Rashid denied any involvement of the regulatory authority or any department of the government in the closure and the MQM also denied that it had played any role in the blocking of the transmission, said a news report on Sunday. The Vice Chairman of the All Pakistan Cable Operators Association, Khalid Arain, was reported to have said that efforts were being made to remove the technical problem that had stopped the transmission.
The subject of the three channels going off the air was severely criticised right away by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, the Association of TV Journalists and the Karachi Union of Journalists. They criticised "the actions taken by the government against private TV channels and harassment of cable operators."
The Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (Sindh Committee) also deplored the blocking of the TV channels, and declared in a very strongly worded resolution that CPNE members condemed in the strongest terms the illegal and uncalled for action in different cities of Sindh whereby transmissions of private sector TV channels in the afternoon of 5th May, was interrupted. Qazi Asad Abid, Convenor, presided over the meeting at which the CPNE secretary general, Wamiq Zuberi, presented details regarding the blackout of the three channels.
On Tuesday, in the National Assembly, as the Dawn reported, "the government feigned ignorance about who caused the private TV channels blackouts in Karachi and some other towns in Sindh province... but it promised to probe the matter and said that it would not allow such an incident to occur again."
The Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Sher Afgan Khan Niazi, gave the government's position amid token protest walkouts by the opposition from the house and journalists from the press gallery.
The minister has been quoted as saying that "it won't happen on the 12th of May" when Justice Chaudhry is due to visit Karachi and President Pervez Musharraf is due to address a rally in Islamabad. This column will be published on 12th May.
I am one of those who would like to thank the KESC for the fact that there were no power failures at the time when my TV set was showing the speech that the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry made in Lahore at the end of his journey by road from Islamabad to Lahore.
I switched TV channels frequently to see the kind of coverage they were giving live, for it was an unforgettable experience to have tried to keep in touch the movement of that procession (motorcade) that took almost 26 hours to reach Lahore High Court from the Federal Capital.
SUPREME COURT PRESS RELEASE:
The Supreme Court of Pakistan in a press release on Wednesday has notified for the information of the general public, the lawyer community and the print and electronic media that the Reference against Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Chief Justice of Pakistan is subjudice before the Supreme Judicial Council, and the Constitutional Petitions on the subject are subjudice before the Full Court of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
The press release has been published in the newspapers and carried by the electronic media. It has been further stated that "discussions, comments, or write-ups which are likely to interfere with the legal process, ridicule, scandalise or malign the Court or any of its Judges, or touching the merits of the case are strictly prohibited. Violation in this regard shall be dealt with under the law relating to Contempt of Court".
One does not need to reproduce the entire text of the press release here. But it seems that the media in the country will have to live up to the expectations and norms that have been stated explicitly.

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This was a repeat telecast of an old programme on the 'Ar Rehman-ur-Raheem' channel a couple of days ago, and it was an award distribution ceremony that had among other speakers the Sindh Chief Minister, Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim. In my channel surfing, I stopped for a while to hear the well known Urdu poet Jamiluddin Aali who was speaking out his heart and in his familiar eloquent style. Among other themes, he was talking about the role and the contribution of the Sindh province for the promotion of the arts, literature and culture. The Sindh Tourism and Culture Department had organised the occasion.
There were many references made in the programme about Sindh Minister Rauf Siddiqui being a poet (Urdu) and that it was his concept to have introduced this awards programme in Sindh.
BAN ON AL-JAZEERA:
And from Iran (Tehran) there is an AP report, which says that the Al-Jazeera television reporters have been banned over "Shiite clerics insult". The ban has been imposed by the Iranian parliament.
The AP report said that the ban is to protest "perceived insults by the network against Iraq's most revered Shiite cleric". The AP quoted the Iranian news agency IRNA on Sunday last.
The report said that the controversy started last week when the Egyptian host of an Al-Jazeera talk show, Ahmed Mansour, questioned Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani's leadership credentials and whether he authored his own edicts".
The Majlis (parliament) has decided to ban reporters of the network from entering until it formally offers an apology over insulting Ayatollah Sistani, Irna quoted the Parliament speaker, Ghulam Ali Haddad Adel as saying.
He further said, "We strongly support Shiite clerics, especially Ayatollah Sistani. He is an Iranian born cleric who has been living in the neighbouring Iraq, for decades and has emerged as one of the most influential figures in the country since the UID led invasion in 2003 because of his stature within the majority Shiite community, said the AP report.
It further said: "following last week's show, hundreds of angry Shiites poured onto the streets of Basra and Najaf in Iraq to protest. Since the fall of Saddam's regime in 2003 Al-Jazeera has been blamed by Shiite politicians for championing the former leader's rule and the Sunni insurgency. The 24 hour news channel, hosted by the Persian Gulf Arab state, of Qatar, has been banned in Iraq since 2004, and the latest "controversy" is likely to worsen already tense relations with the Shiite-led government in Baghdad. This is how the American news agency AP concluded its news story.
FOREIGN TV CHANNELS:
I sometimes wonder that with the steady increase in the number of Pakistani TV channels or those from India or even options like the ATN Bangla (indeed I have noticed that there is also a Bengali language channel that some cable operators are providing) how many people watch the American news channel CNN or even BBC for news coverage about Pakistan. I am saying this because there are now channels like Aryone World, Geo and Aaj TV (even Royal TV I found last weekend with reference to the coverage of the journey that the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Mr Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry undertook from Islamabad to Lahore.)
There was a time when for such news stories about Pakistan, the Pakistani citizen had to rely mostly on foreign radio stations like the BBC or other foreign TV channels.
The picture now stands changed. Technology has made it possible to bring home live coverage of what is happening on the streets of this country. And with choice of channels that viewers now have one wonders whether they have the same degree of interest in a channel like the CNN or the BBC.
Having said this let me refer to the channel surfing that I did on 3rd May and found myself watching Larry King live on CNN. I wish I could have watched it from the start to finish, it was one of those shows. This was a special show that was to celebrate Larry's 50 years of broadcasting. He was being interviewed in a very lively manner by Katie Courie and the conversation touched upon many aspects of Larry King through the years.
Larry King was asked the celebrity questions and to one of them he underlined was that TV viewers have always been part of his shows - stressing the importance that he attaches to interaction with viewers. But he also showed awareness that he cannot go on forever. Katie asked him about the "suspenders" that he wears, to which he said that "I am not a jacket wearing kind of a guy" - adding that they were possibly a fashion statement, as well.
I have mentioned the ATN Bangla TV channel, which I was able to watch for the first time during the week. Let me confess that I do not understand Bengali, but I find it very sweet to hear it. I do regret that I don't understand Bengali and I wish I could have learnt how to speak it. I am reminded here of the days when East Pakistan was a part of this country. Perhaps it is this reason that I watched with a curiosity the ATN Bangla Channel, which appeared to be a modern TV channel - and the sound and image were both of reasonable quality. I would like to believe that there are such residential and commercial areas where Bengali speaking people reside and work and that this telecast caters to their needs.
I am looking forward to be able to watch this Bengali language channel when ever I can. I want to see the kind of news coverage it has, in view of the political situation that exists in Bangladesh. I wonder what are the constraints there. Or rather, what is the overall context in which the electronic media functions there. It would make useful comparison.