Govt reluctant to proceed against Geo, 2 PEMRA officials boycott hearing
One member Israr Abbasi also resigned from PEMRA's 3-member committee.
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Two members from Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) hearing petition against private channel Geo News boycotted the hearing on Friday alleging that government does not want any action against the offending TV network, Dunya News reported.
PEMRA’s session summoned by fact finding committee is continued in Islamabad. According to sources, the options of canceling channel’s license, suspension or fine were being reviewed in the session but two members Israr Abbasi and Mian Shams boycotted the hearing after disagreement with other members’ behaviour.
Israr Abbasi also resigned from PEMRA’s 3-member committee.
Following the boycott, Israr Abbasi said while talking to the media that arguments of parties were heard on May 6 and hearing record were included in the agenda of next hearing but instead of talking about the agenda during the session, legal aspects were brought in. He claimed that committee members do not want to take any decision owing to the alleged pressure and that the committee members want to forward the matter to Council of Complaint.
He said if the matter is pursued in Council of Complaint, then Geo will benefit, adding that he doesn’t want to become part of any controversial decision of the authority and therefore he resorted to boycott.
Abbasi said that PEMRA completed action against Capital TV in one day and that government officials are trying to protect Geo.
He said that if government took any decision for its political gains, it will be akin self detonating. If government wants to self-explode, it’s their decision, all decisions are being made after government’s consultations, he claimed.
Private TV channel Geo News landed itself into controversy on April 19 in its coverage following the attack on prominent journalist Hamid Mir.
The attack was reported on every national TV channel including Dunya News within minutes of attack; however, Geo News distinguished itself in coverage by airing Hamid Mir’s brother Amir Mir’s allegations over DG of national institution. Geo News allegedly took it to task to repeatedly malign and defame DG ISI by flashing his picture on the breaking news broadcast for at least eight hours.
The channel backtracked by terming the allegations as Hamid Mir’s brother’s own statement and not of the channel’s.
Amir Mir claimed during the broadcast that Hamid Mir had informed him that DG ISI Lt. General Zaheer-ul-Islam is to be blamed if he was attacked.
