KARACHI: Pemra takes no action against errant operators
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Feb 16: The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) does little to ensure that the cable operators offer quality services to their subscribers.
Official sources told Dawn that while the regulatory authority did its utmost to make sure that the cable operators registered themselves with Pemra and paid fees, it did not take enough action against those cable operators whose quality of service left a lot to be desired.
“Perhaps issues of peripheral nature keep Pemra bogged down. It also has to pay heed to such directives as to keep a ban on Indian channels. Besides, it has to ensure — at least on paper — that the cable operators did not show movies through their network,” they explained.
In a directive, the previous regulator of the cable operators in the city — the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority — had barred the cable operators from showing any video film through their network.
However, a survey conducted by Dawn shows that the regulatory authority has no mechanism for catching those cable operators who violate the directive.
When a cable operator was approached for comments, he observed: “It is beyond my understanding how Pemra will ensure that the cable operators follow its directive. It has no device, let alone any sophisticated monitoring network, to catch those who are violating the directive. As a matter of fact, a large number of cable operators are not even registered with Pemra. They are showing all sorts of movies, even some indecent ones.”
Insiders say Pemra has no way of determining the exact number of cable operators as well as the total number of subscribers. The amount that a cable operator pays to Pemra is directly proportional to the number of his subscribers. Which is why the cable operators understate the number of subscribers they serve. Unable to determine the exact number of subscribers, Pemra has no alternative but to take the word of the cable operators for it.
Subscribers in different localities said that quite often their cable operators switched off their network without giving any prior notice. “In addition, they keep switching channels. We do not know whether a channel that we are watching today will be shown by our cable operators tomorrow or not,” they said.
They added that the cable operators also showed advertisements on channels which are quite popular with viewers. The cable operators receive money from the advertisers and show the advertisements. The regulatory authority is either not informed or perhaps turns a blind eye to this practice because it cannot prevent the cable operators from showing the advertisements.”
Pemra sources told Dawn that the regulatory authority could also not find out whether any cable operator was showing Indian channels or not.
