14 May 2004	Friday	23 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

PESHAWAR, May 13: Cable operators in the city have been facing many problems, but the government is reluctant to resolve their issues, despite getting huge taxes from them.

Some operators told Dawn on Thursday that cutting of cable wires by religious extremists had become a big source of loss and embarrassment both for cable operators and their clients across the NWFP.

"We have invested our hard-earned money in the installation of cable network to earn livelihood, but our clients are decreasing day by day owing to this disruption in services," they said.

More than two dozens cable operators in Peshawar have been voicing concerns over the cutting of cable wires, but this practice goes unchecked. Many people claimed to have reported this illegal practice to police, but, according to them, officials turned a deaf ear to these complaints.

Sometimes people also illegally connected wires to cable networks, said the cable operators. They charged Rs1,000 as connection charges and Rs200 monthly, but half of the people watch cable transmissions without paying a single penny, they said.

"We have been complaining to police and the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) about the problem of illegal connections, but to no avail," said an operator.

He said that each of the 27 cable operators in the city had been paying Rs50,000 as license fee to Pemra and additional Rs25,000 each annually for per 1,000 connections. They, he said, also paid Rs40 per pole to Wapda while the fee for installing an amplifier was Rs300.

Each operator paid Rs26,000 for a decoder of Star Package, Rs3,000 for HBO, and Rs5,000 for multi-choice facility, he said, adding that they also paid Rs5,000-8,000 power bills.

According to him, it was the responsibility of the government to protect the cable operators against the people who wanted to disrupt their services and demanded an action against them.

A subscriber in Canal Town said he had got installed the cable wire to his house for Rs5,000."But the cable operator of the area told me that a committee headed by the prayer leader of Kausar Mosque, Canal Town, has banned the installation of cable in the whole town," he said.

And after three days, the committee cut the wires. The matter was reported to the university town police, but they expressed inability to take action against that local body, he said.