ICC T20, PSL 7&8 matches: PTV’s broadcast rights contract caused loss to exchequer, says report

ISLAMABAD: A contract signed between Pakistan Television (PTV) and a private television channel for broadcast rights of ICC T20, Pakistan Super League (PSL) 7 and 8 had resulted in a huge loss to the national exchequer, a report revealed on Monday.

A fact-finding committee was formed by the government after it came to light that during the tenure of the previous government, PTV had entered into a consortium with a private channel for the contracts for broadcasting PSL 7 and 8 as well as the World Cup.

The committee, comprising the information secretary, PTV managing director, PTV chief financial officer, and PIO, was established to probe whether the state broadcaster had entered into a contract with the channel based on merit, or if there was another motive.

Sources, citing the report of the fact-finding committee, have said nepotism was involved in PTV’s decision to sign the contract with the private channel and that this decision had caused a huge loss to the national exchequer.

“The bidding process was flawed and not transparent. The rules of the PPRA and PTV were violated in the process,” the sources said. They said companies which had entered the bidding process and followed the legal process were removed from consideration.

The sources said that through a “suspicious” and “manipulated” process, other companies were not provided a fair chance to participate in the bidding process. The sources said this decision had caused heavy losses to the national exchequer and the government had decided to take a legal action.

“Contracts were awarded to favoured companies [...] the favoured parties were also given a tax exemption,” the sources said about the report. The Ministry of Information has submitted the evidence to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and an investigation has been launched to probe the matter.