Addressing grievances: PEMRA, CAP officials to meet next week

Chairman pleads cable operators to stop providing Indian channels.

LAHORE:

Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority Chairman Chaudhry Rashid Ahmed has invited office bearers of the All Pakistan Cable Operators Association (CAP) to have a meeting with him next week.

In a meeting with a delegation of CAP on Tuesday, Ahmed assured them that he would consider their grievances open-mindedly. The delegation was led by CAP’s Central President Furqan Ghiyas and Senior Vice-President Captain (retd) Jabbar.

The delegation demanded the 25 suspended cable licences in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to be restored.

The Pemra chairman pointed out that airing Indian channels on cable television was illegal and doing so was damaging local talent, TV and film industry. He appealed to cable operators to stop promoting Indian channels. Ahmed said he wanted to resolve all issues through talks with cable operators next week.

Responding to questions by the media, he said all stakeholders should follow the code of conduct issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan and play their role in ensuring free and fair general elections. He added that the ECP had asked for details and costs of the advertisements of political parties run on TV channels and the information was submitted daily.

The CAP delegation included Chairman Ghofran Mujtaba, Senior Vice Chairman Sindh Sadiq Lakhani, Senior Vice Chairman CAP Zubari Khalid, central General Secretary Imran Nadeem, Chairman Punjab Rana Zahid, General Secretary Punjab Rana Ayub, President Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Imran Nabi, Information Secretary Babar Bhatti, Chairman Balochistan Aamir Paracha, Saeed Shah and Moinuddin.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 1^st, 2013.