‘PTV broadcasts to be digitised by year-end’

Senate committee unhappy with delays in implementation of recommendations

ISLAMABAD:

A meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting was held under the chairmanship of Senator Faisal Javed at the Pakistan Television (PTV) headquarters in Islamabad on Thursday.

The PTV managing director informed that the institution has managed to increase its annual revenue to Rs11 billion of which annual expenditure is between Rs7 billion to Rs8 billion. He further informed about the digitisation of PTV broadcasts, stating that they will be fully digitalised by December.

Informing the committee about shifting the broadcasts to HD quality, he said that PTV broadcasts will be presented in HD quality soon.

Javed, while seeking clarification regarding the introduction of PTV broadcasts to the public through digital and social media, expressed displeasure over the unnecessary delays in the process.

The MD said that no investment had been made in the last 15 years for the provision of modern technology to PTV. "We are trying to make PTV a world-class organisation with a minimum budget so that PTV can be transformed into the voice of the nation, internationally," he added.

Javed directed that a comprehensive plan on PTV’s digitisation be presented at the next meeting of the committee. He added that we should be informed to what extent the previous recommendations of the committee have been implemented so far.

The meeting further took up public petition no 3788 regarding the fulfilment of a contract by PTV, forcing and addendum, non-payments and discrimination, referred to the committee on June 25 was examined in detail.

The MD and Information and Broadcasting secretary briefed the committee on the matter in detail. The secretary assured that the matter would be resolved at the earliest.

Senator Irfan Siddiqui raised the question as to why agreements are being signed with a private party to produce films and dramas despite PTV having the resources to do so on its own.

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The PTV MD informed the committee that due to a lack of modern technology, private firms are being asked to conduct such ventures. The senator then asked why PTV gave so much money to private organisations, adding that things can be improved if the same money is spent by PTV on the purchase of equipment and modern technology.

The MD informed that in the last two years, PTV had moved from a deficit and was being transformed into a profitable organisation.

Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar advised the MD that the issue between the private company and PTV be resolved through arbitration if possible. The committee chairman, while instructing the secretary and the MD, said that the matter should be resolved in accordance with the arbitration clause contained in the agreement and every effort be made to ensure that no one’s rights are violated.

Senator Aun Abbas asked the MD about the assets of the national institution across the country upon which Javed issued instructions to present the details of all assets of the institution in the next meeting of the committee.

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib assured that the positive instructions of the committee would be fully implemented. "Every possible step will be taken for the betterment of PTV," he maintained.

The committee chairman inquired that despite the committee’s repeated recommendations, whenever the sessions of National Assembly and the Senate are convened simultaneously, only the proceedings of the National Assembly are broadcast live due to which the proceedings of the Senate do not reach the general public.

To this observation, the MD informed the committee that there is no separate channel for PTV Parliament it is being run by interrupting the broadcast of PTV National. He further assured to take steps to stream the proceedings of the Senate directly from the digital platform, in case of simultaneous proceedings of both the houses.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 9^th, 2021.