Proposal finalised for telecasting House proceedings

ISLAMABAD:

Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry on Monday told an upper house panel that a proposal had been finalised to charge private television channels for the live telecast of parliament proceedings.

“The private TV channels will have to pay for showing contents of the PTV Parliament so that the state-owned channel can be run on a sustainable model through income generation,” he said during the Senate Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting’s meeting, which was presided over by Senator Faisal Javed Khan.

Fawad also asked the committee to propose whether parliament should bear the expenses of showing live proceedings of parliament. He gave an example of the British Broadcasting Corporation, which had been charging 100 pounds for its services.

Some channels of the PTV were already operational under public-private partnership and producing positive results, he said, while citing the example of the PTV Home that generated a profit of over Rs1 billion by outsourcing 26 dramas that were purchased with an amount of over Rs180 million.

About the jump in the profit of PTV Sports, he said that it was earning up to Rs500 million per annum before opting for the public-private partnership, but now it had reached Rs800 million this year after the initiative.

“PTV sports’ stream would be transformed into HD within the next three months,” he added.

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To a query, the minister said the PTV Parliament would continue showing live proceedings of parliament sessions if both the Houses were in session by shifting live streaming one of them to the YouTube channel of the state-run channel.

A dedicated channel of PTV for kids would be launched soon, Fawad said.

Within the next six to eight months, he added that a sustainable model of human resource management would be in place in the PTV. Fawad said the management was striving to hire highly qualified professionals by avoiding political interference in the human resource management of the state-owned assets.

The minister said the PTV had earned a profit amounting to Rs1.3 billion this year due to the “prudent business model” introduced by the government. “The PTV is giving due coverage to opposition leaders of both the houses including Shehbaz Sharif,” he said in response to another query.

Fawad said the pension dues of retired PTV employees had been paid.

About the proposal of increasing the TV fee from Rs35 to Rs100, the minister said that he himself had rejected the idea of further burdening the taxpayers. “I want the channel to run the affairs on its own,” he added.

In case of waiver of TV fee, he said the streaming of PTV channels in seven languages including Kashmiri, Balochi, Seraiki and others might come to a halt. It would also have an impact on 200 FMs operational across the country.

Different Power Distribution Companies (DISCOs) owed some Rs4 billion to PTV out of a total amount of Rs7 billion (per annum), he said while answering another query.

Fawad said: “The information ministry and attached departments have properties worth over Rs1 trillion.” The services of a consultant were being hired to collect the details of buildings and properties, he added.

He said from the year 2008-2018, a large number of people were inducted into state-owned entities – including Pakistan Steel Mills, Pakistan International Airlines and others. Out of the total inducted people, he added, the qualification of over 80 per cent of employees was matric and FA.

The country has a total income of Rs6 trillion, out of which 59 per cent was transferred to provinces under the National Finance Commission Award, he said, adding that an amount of Rs1.7 trillion was spent on defence.

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The PTV management informed the committee that the tenders for reevaluation of the properties of PTV would be opened on October 6. The Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation had also sought cabinet approval for commercialisation of some of its properties, they added.

The minister urged the opposition parties to evolve consensus on tightening the media laws so that fake news could be dealt with in an effective way. “The maximum propaganda of fake news is against politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen,” he added.

The committee expressed its indignation over the whopping disparity in the salaries of different employees of PTV.

Senator Irfan Siddique said the salaries of some 75 daily wage earners had been the same despite the passage of several years.

Senator Faisal Javed directed the PTV management to submit details of the human resources of PTV that should be rationalised at the earliest. There should not be a disparity in salaries, he added.
The committee deferred deliberations on the Bill titled ‘The Right of Access to Information (Amendment) Bill 2020’ due to the absence of the mover of the bill.

The committee directed the Pakistan Media Regulatory Authority to submit a report on the compliance of airing the required air time on public service messages by private TV channels. The committee also summoned the Pakistan Broadcasters Associations (PBA).