Pemra postpones DTH bidding process

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) Friday postponed the bidding scheduled to be held on Monday, December 7, for grant of Direct to Home (DTH) licences.
Further decision in the matter shall be taken in its next meeting. The authority directed to prepare a detailed working paper for consideration of Pemra keeping in view all legal aspects and security issues regarding the DTH project.
Pemra expressed its resolve to complete the DTH process at the earliest without compromising on law in a transparent and fair manner. It was resolved that all possible measures shall be taken to ensure transparency.
The matter was also discussed with the law experts present in the meeting, including Law Secretary Justice (R) Raza Khan, Justice (R) Ijaz Ahmed Ch and Advocate Ali Shah Gilani.
Newly appointed Pemra Chairman Absar Alam, since taking the charge of his office on December 1, 2015, chaired the first meeting of the authority held at Pemra Headquarters, Islamabad, on Friday. Overall this was the 107th meeting of Pemra.
The Pemra chairman in his maiden meeting welcomed all the authority members and pledged to evolve Pemra as a vibrant and effective regulator in all essence. He said that he believed in freedom of expression and speech as enshrined in the Article 19 of the Constitution of Pakistan and would, therefore, prefer consultative approach to take along all stakeholders so that the impending challenges, regulatory/ tariff issues etc could amicably be addressed consensually.
At the same time, there would be no compromise on writ of the authority. The chairman said Pemra should not be perceived as some kind of martinet, imposing arbitrary sanctions on the media.
Amongst other agendas, a very important and ongoing DTH project also came under threadbare discussion. The chairman asked the authority members that he has been entrusted the charge of Pemra at the time when besides other challenges and required initiatives, Pemra is going to commence the biggest and most significant project of its history i.e. DTH project which involves multi-million dollars of investments and revenues.
He said that he has hardly spent few hours as the Chairman IN Pemra but he is being asked to follow the bidding timeline of December 7 for the DTH. He said that how he can be able to take any decision/ position on such an important and significant project unless he does not know or is briefed about the project, its committee, criteria, procedures, guidelines and other important legal matters.
Therefore, in order to address these issues and to eschew foreseeable legal complications, he requested the Authority that the scheduled bidding may be delayed to fully understand the project.
Besides, Absar Alam, Executive Member Pemra Kamal Uddin Tipu, Secretary Ministry of Information Broadcasting & National Heritage Saba Mohsin Raza, Secretary Ministry of Interior Shahid Khan, PTA Chairman Dr Ismail Shah, FBR Chairman Nisar Mohammad Khan, Ashraff Gujjar, Nargis Nasir, Shaheen Habibullah and Nasir Jamal. DG Internal Publicity Ministry of Information. were also present in the meeting.
APP adds: Separately, an official of Pemra told APP on Friday that the Authority would hold bidding for three licences for DTH television distribution system on December 7 (Monday).
He said Pemra has shortlisted eight applicant companies for participation in the bidding. The DTH licensing would be a major milestone in the broadcast arena and after the launch of the DTH, he said, the subscribers would have much more access to high quality TV channels having digital features like parental control, electronic programme guide, Internet and video on demand.
He said the service would help in easier regulatory control besides addressing complaint of TV channels who are not finding adequate place on traditional analogue cable TV networks.
Similarly this technology would facilitate viewers to watch large variety of uninterrupted channels in their homes, he said.
The initiation of this digital medium would help in creating jobs for thousands of people besides injecting investment of billions of rupees in the country s economy, he said.