January 8, 2003	Wednesday	Ziqa’ad 4, 1423

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RAWALPINDI, Jan 7: The cable operators of the twin cities will boycott telecasting of five news channels from Wednesday (today) in protest against the policies of Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra).

This was announced by the general-secretary of the cable operators association of the twin cities, Imran Nadeem, at a press conference held here on Tuesday.

Mr Nadeem alleged that owing to Pemra’s exploitative policies, their businesses were being adversely affected.

He said the services of five news channels — BBC, CNN, ARY, Geo and Indus — would be suspended from 7am to 10pm, affecting more than 100,000 subscribers.

He added that if Pemra did not fulfil their demands, they would suspend their services in the rest of the country from January 11 to 13. He said if they quit their businesses, it would further affect the livelihood of 600,000 people, including importers of cable equipment, shop-owners and their employees, cable technicians and operators and line-men across the country.

Citing the reasons for the boycott, Mr Nadeem said Pemra was changing the terms and conditions mentioned in the licenses’ agreements on its own, without consulting the cable operators.

He said the authority had unnecessarily banned DVD and VCD channels and showing of some local advertisements by the operators. He said the authorities were also charging an additional amount of Rs10 per subscriber, besides the already declared Rs25,000 for renewal of license fee. If the government, he said, was interested in encouraging small investors then Prime Minister Mir Zafar Ullah Khan Jamali should address operators’ grievances and save their businesses, which they had started with their hard-earned money, borrowings and loans.