April 18, 2006	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 19, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, April 17: President Pakistan Television Channel Limited Incorporation USA (PTCL) Syed Shahid Zaheer on Monday sought the intervention of President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to stop Pakistan Television (PTV) from launching its channel in the United States.

Speaking to the mediapersons at a local hotel, Shahid Zaheer accused the state television of breaching a contract agreement called “Exclusive Software Supply Agreement” (ESSA) that the corporation had signed with PTCL-USA for a period of 10 years. Under the agreement, the company had reserved the right to air PTV programmes in North America and Canada.

Now PTV has signed a similar contract with “EchoStar” for distribution of its programmes, which, is a duplication of the same agreement signed with PTCL-USA, he said. “Thus the PTV is liable for all damages including the legal fees for pursuing a litigation against the corporation in a local court,” he said.

Shahid Zaheer told reporters that a huge foreign investment of over $10 million was at stake and the grant of similar rights to EchoStar for North America and Canada was in breach of the agreement that the PTV had signed with PTCL-USA.

“PTCL-USA has established a huge subscriber base but now PTV management is trying to steal its assets and my diehard efforts since August 2001,” he alleged.

Meanwhile, PTV in a statement defended its position by saying that it had not violated any of its contractual obligations of the agreement signed with PTCL-USA. On the contrary, PTV is well within its rights to take any or all of its channels anywhere in the world including the US.