Pemra acts in line with NAP, NA told

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly (NA) was informed on Friday that Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) has taken punitive measures against those channels which have flouted Code of Conduct as a commitment towards implementation of National Action Plan (NAP) with particular reference to 'Glorification of Crime'.

Responding to a question during question hour, the parliamentary secretary for information and broadcasting, Mohsin Shahnawaz Ranjha said that Pemra takes action through advises, warnings and show cause notices to the violators of its laws. 

He said Pemra implements its own rules and the Ministry of Information only gives policy directions to the Authority.  He pointed out that Pemra has its own monitoring system and mechanism to deal with the day to day complaints.

“As an internal monitoring mechanism, Pemra has established a state of the art monitoring setup to monitor content being aired by the licenced satellite TV channels,” he said.

He said that Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation and Pakistan Television Corporation being the state institutions broadcast special programmes based on the essence of two-nation theory and identity of Pakistan on several national occasions.

Mohsin Shahnawaz Ranjha told the House during question hour that both PBC and PTV broadcast programmes to promote Islamic Ideology, national unity and principles of democracy, freedom, equality, tolerance and social justice and enunciated by Islamabad. “Both institutions also broadcast programmes to discourage parochial, racial, tribal sectarian, linguistic and provincial prejudices and reflect the aspirations of the people of the country,” he said.

Answering a question, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Shaikh Aftab Ahmad told the House that efforts are underway to complete the new Islamabad International Airport within the shortest possible time.  He said it was delayed due to enhancement of its capacity adding that 95%t work on building of the airport has been completed and machinery is being imported for installation.