The Senate Standing Committee on Information and Media reported on Tuesday that the Rangers have occupied the property of Radio Pakistan in Karachi.
Senator Faisal Javed presided over the committee. Senator Syed Waqar Mehdi brought up the subject of the Rangers’ use of property belonging to Radio Pakistan in Karachi. A letter was reportedly sent to the Ministry of the Interior to remedy the issue, and the committee was made aware of this.
As a result, Federal Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb demanded that the concerned parties immediately get in touch with the Ministry of Interior to find a solution. The committee was also informed that four state-of-the-art podcast studios had recently been set up at Radio Pakistan.
The committee has noticed and is unhappy about the transmission outage. The committee agreed, saying it was the same as stifling free speech.
The committee also noted that the Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation needs to pay its staff an estimated 1.5 billion rupees to cover all past due salaries and benefits (PBC).
The committee agreed unanimously that the government should give the institution the money it needs to pay the retirees on time.
The conference also had agendas of PEMRA other than radio as well
The conference began with a presentation on the recent suspension of transmission of certain channels and the prohibition on airing speeches of specified political personalities from the Chairperson of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA).
The head of PEMRA made it clear that no channel transmissions have been halted. However, PEMRA officials reportedly instructed to suspend the transmissions over WhatsApp calls, as reported by media outlets. The PEMRA chairman encouraged the channels to submit written complaints to the organization and vowed to take action if necessary.
The committee also reviewed the problem of the term “delayed” appearing on the screen during the broadcast of former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s remarks. Aun Abbas, a senator, noticed that this only happened during Senator Imran Khan’s talks.
The PEMRA chairman said that the rules of conduct apply to all channels equally and require delayed transmission for editorial control purposes. It came as a surprise to the committee chairman that former prime minister Imran Khan’s speeches had been singled out in this way.
In accordance with the High Court’s ruling, the committee ordered the PEMRA to ensure that all statements by political leaders are broadcast live and uninterrupted. The PEMRA chairman was unable to answer the committee’s queries about this issue to their satisfaction. The committee also agreed to bring the media outlets’ owners and representatives to the next meeting in order to discuss the channels’ closures further.
The problem of unpaid pensions to PBC retirees was discussed in a briefing given to the committee by Radio Pakistan’s director-general (PBC).
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