PEMRA ORDINANCE 2002

From one terrestrial channel to more than 80 satellite channels and from one Radio Pakistan to more than 100 FM radio stations, the broadcast sector has grown immensely and rapidly. In order to keep an eye on the television and radio channels, the Government came up with the new PEMRA Ordinance that was developed by the Ministry to Law, Justice, and Human Rights & Parliamentary Affairs in 2002 under the supervision of President of Pakistan General Pervaiz Musharraf.

This new version was more improved than the older version. An authority was developed to monitor the effectiveness of the PEMRA but unfortunately, the ordinance seriously lacks proper and strict implementation. The monitoring is not satisfactory. A good example is that the satellite channels are not supposed to show the clips of blood and corpses of the victims died on injured in a bomb blast or other stuff like that but all the channels show the clips as deeply as they can to get more viewer ship and PEMRA does not take any action against those channels. Another example is that when GEO said that Pakistan is involved in Mumbai attacks, that was when PEMRA should have taken severe action because channels can not say anything against national interest. But on the other hand, when GEO & ARY were telecasting the news of shoe throwing on Zardari in UK, then GEO & ARY were banned and sent off air immediately which is again a false act by PEMRA because the ordinance says that the channel can show the truth only, even if it is against the Government but can not add any extra material to it. So according to me, the biggest loop hole in the PEMRA Ordinance 2002 is the proper and serious implementation of the PEMRA Ordinance 2002.

Regards,
Syed Muhammad Danish