Pemra raids law violators in Sindh, Punjab cities

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) teams have raided various cable TV operators’ offices in Sindh and seized 64 receivers, Two dish TV decoders, 5 C-line receivers, 6 transmitter, 15 CPU, 2 dish TV cards and 5 DVDs being used for distributing proscribed channels. 

The raids were conducted in several cities as per directions of the Authority to comply with Pemra laws by October 15 and to desist from airing Illegal Indian channels, excess in-house channel specially with regards to foreign content percentage, says a press release on Monday.

Pemra Regional office Sindh sent several enforcement teams simultaneously to inspect cable TV and FM radio licensees under its jurisdiction including Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Larkana, Nawabshah, Mirpurkhas and Khairpur to crack down against the violators.

The impounded gadgets were being used for distributing illegal/ proscribed channels. Pemra also reminded its licensees to strictly comply with directions of the Authority. The teams also visited various FM radio network of the region inspected the Fixed Point Chart (Program Chart) to ensure compliance of the content percentage.

Pemra resolved that such actions would continue till the sanity creep into the electronic media. Pemra believes in freedom of information and choice but it must be coupled with social responsibility, ethics and generally accepted standards of decency and morality.

APP adds from Sialkot: Pemra teams have sealed five cable TV offices in Sialkot district for airing banned Indian TV channels. According to Pemra officials, the cable TV operators were found airing the banned Indian TV channels during the raids.

Our Gujranwala correspondent adds: The Pemra has unearthed an illegal TV channel network and arrested two accused, besides seizing dozens of dishes, receivers, routers and other tools, during a raid, said Pemra Regional Manager Khurram Siddiqui. 

Talking to newsmen here on Monday, he said that the network was involved in airing Indian and other banned channels not only in Pakistan but also in Gulf countries through sea line and IP license while the IP license had been issued only to the PTV.  He said that the Pemra had issued notices to 15 cable operators for violating the Pemra rules in the region.