Pemra issues notice to Bol News over Dr Shahid Masood’s show

Notice comes after Ishaq Dar's complain regarding episode which discussed civil-military relations

Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) on Monday issued a show cause notice to Bol News over content of Dr Shahid Masood’s show.



The media watchdog in its notice said the programme, Live with Dr Shahid Masood, discussed sensitive information “recklessly and carelessly”.  The notice referred to an episode of the programme aired on January 24, 2017 at 08.05 pm on Bol News which discussed civil-military relations.

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— Report PEMRA (@reportpemra) January 30, 2017

The regulator asked the channel to reply to the notice by February 2.

The notice came after Finance Minister Ishaq Dar filed a complaint against the channel and the anchor.



According to Pemra and Dar's notices, Dr Masood in his programme stated that two ministers, one of whose name starts with a ‘K’ and the other’s with a ‘D’, were called to the General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi recently. Dr Masood identified one of them as “dealing with the treasury” and the other as “related to defence”.

Earlier on Monday, Dar sent Rs1 billion legal notices through his legal counsel to both Bol News and anchor Dr Shahid Masood for airing and anchoring a malicious programme to defame him. The notice said the episode passed conjecture, libelous and defamatory statements to damage the finance minister’s personality and character.

He made a completely false statement hinting to an alleged meeting between finance minister and Rawalpindi ('GHQ'), whereas, no such meeting had taken place at all. The story was utterly false and absolutely fictitious. The anchor’s fabrication had the malicious intent to defame and disgrace the finance minister, Dar's notice said.