Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority Chairman Absar Alam urged the higher authorities to take notice of the threats being received by the media watchdog and provide security to him and his staff.
He said that it’s becoming increasingly difficult for Pemra to continue performing its duties in these conditions.
He request the prime minister, the chief justice of Pakistan and the army chief to take notice of this situation to ensure adequate security to him and his team. The Pemra chief said his organisation was receiving threatening phone calls. Alam played the audio recording of a threatening phone call a Pemra employee had received after a TV news channel was taken off air. In the recording, the unknown caller appeared to be pressurising the employee to restore the transmission of the channel in five minutes, warning otherwise of serious consequences. He said that there were many TV news channels and anchors poisoning the society with malignant content.
Absar lamented that it was getting more and more difficult for them to operate and added that the situation was alarming. He also expressed deep concern over the hate speech and poisoning of minds by certain anchors and speakers.
The matter, he added, was being taken to the Supreme Court while they had no intention to lodge an FIR, as this could put the Pemra employee, who had received the threatening call. We are criticised by both the conservative and liberal segments when courts grant a stay on the cases we take up related to the code of conduct, he added. Alam said Pemra had taken action on 357 complaints lodged with it but they were challenged in 337 courts. He said that High courts were even granting stay on the show-cause notices issued by the authority. The Pemra chief said the authority was committed to fulfilling its duty of blocking content which was against the spirit of the National Action Plan and Operation Radd-ul-Fasad. He said that Pemra’s powers were being curtailed and restricted. The Pemra chief asserted that all federal institutions were bound to assist and cooperate with the authority as and when required as per Section 33-A of the regulations. He has requested the prime minister and the chief justice of Pakistan to help the authority in enabling it to perform its duties properly. Alam said he could put up with the criticism aimed at him but tolerate attempts to taint Pemra’s reputation.
The Pemra chief is a sane person and he is endeavoring to make Pemra a proactive body for regulation of electronic media. Although there is lot of potential to bring improvement in Pemra but he has taken step to improve the working of the institution. The Pemra chief in his talk with media has raised fears regarding security. His reservations regarding the security should be given serious attention by relevant authorities. The government should provide foolproof security to Pemara and his chief. The steps should also be taken to make Pemra an independent and proactive institution.
