Despite Pemra orders, Geo not yet fully restored

 

ISLAMABAD: Despite the clear orders of the Supreme Court (SC) and the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra), Geo News is still not accessible to a large number of viewers across the country, putting a big question mark on the writ of the government and rule of law in the country.
Reports from across the country suggest that hidden forces are preventing the restoration of Pakistan’s most popular channel even after the written directives of Pemra issued after the expiry of the 15-day ban on June 20, 2014.

In another blatant violation of the Supreme Court order, the channel numbers of Geo News and other members of Geo family including Geo Tez, Geo Super and Geo Kahani have been changed illegally.

The apex court, while disposing of Geo News petition on May 26, directed Pemra to restore Geo News on its original position but the channel is either completely blocked or placed on last numbers where signal quality is too poor to show the clear transmission.

On the other hand, while Pemra has imposed one-month suspension on Geo Entertainment for showing blasphemous content, it has taken no action against other channels which aired the same content in their morning shows. A private channel has even reproduced the same content repeatedly but Pemra has turned a blind eye towards the issue. It seems that Pemra has become a helpless regulator as it has failed to ensure implementation of its orders in letter and spirit.

On June 20, Pemra suspended the licence of a private TV channel for 15 days for airing anti-judiciary programmes but the authority could not fully implement the orders and the transmission continued in violation of law. Four days later, Sindh High Court (SHC) restored the transmission of the private channel and it was back on air immediately.

But the same could not happen in case of Geo News. The authority had suspended the licence of Geo News for fifteen days on June 5. The channel respected the law and suspended transmissions in Pakistan on the same day.

Upon completion of the suspension period on June 20, Pemra forwarded the notification of restoration of Geo News to all its regional offices with direction that the country’s cable operators should obey the order of the Supreme Court according to which the position of Geo News on cable TV network should be the same as was in the second week of April, 2014.

However the directions of authority were not taken seriously by the cable operators in several parts of the country.The management of Geo News has already suffered huge financial losses worth billions for illegal blockade and repositioning of Geo and other channels of the family including Geo Tez, Geo Kahani and Geo Super.

Karachi: Business activities forced to shut yet again

KARACHI: Armed men forced traders and businessmen to shut their activities after life limped back to normalcy in the city of lights on Thursday, Geo News reported.

The business centres in Malir, Landhi, New Karachi, Korangi, F.B Area, Ancholi and others areas were forcibly closed down by unknown people.

It may be mentioned that the business activities partially resumed today after remaining paralysed for two days following the arrest of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain in London.

On the other hand, MQM Rabitta Committee has condemned closure of the business activities by the miscreants and said that such elements want to deteriorate the situation.

The MQM leadership appealed to sympathizers to remain calm and contain their emotions.

The Rabitta Committee said MQM has also appealed to traders, businessmen and transporters to resume their activities.

No decision yet on full-scale operation in NWA: Chaudhry Nisar

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan Saturday said neither a decision has been made on undertaking a full-scale military operation in North Waziristan nor on abandoning the dialogue process with the Taliban militants.

Talking to media representatives, he said no suggestion came from any side to scrap the process of peace talks with the Taliban in the recent meeting focusing on the country’s security issues.

He said the aerial offensive and limited action carried out in North Waziristan agency along side the Afghan border were part of the decision made some time back.

The Interior Minister termed as ridiculous a report of a foreign news agency on the meeting of security matters chaired by the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. “This is not the first time a foreign news agency has released a flawed report on (Pakistan’s) civil-military relations,” he added.

Chaudhry Nisar clarified that the meeting presided over by the PM was held in a very cordial atmosphere.

He further said that no such decision has been taken to hand over the security of Islamabad or any other major city of the country to the army.