KARACHI, Dec 12: The Pakistan People’s Party on Wednesday condemned what it called, an “open threat to the media from the Pakistan Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra), saying that the authority would allow transmission of only approved political contents. The PPP deplored that a limited number channels were allowed to continue with their transmissions independently.

“As the fundamental constitutional rights of citizens stay suspended for almost 40 days, the Pakistani media which was earlier blacked out, is facing another onslaught as the regime has been making fresh attempts to muzzle the media,” Sherry Rehman, the central information secretary of the party said in a statement.

Rejecting the Pemra allegation that the media organisations had been airing “anti-Pakistan content” she said that the so called media regulatory body had openly threatened the media with a three-year sentence, Rs10 million fine and cancellation of licence at failure to comply with the amended Pemra ordinance promulgated by General (Retd) Musharraf on Nov 3.

She said that Pemra had always acted as a “thinly disguised tool” to manipulate the media. “Slapping penalties for airing what has been described as “anti-state content” has long been a favoured tactic with the regime that has completely lost sight of ground realities.

Everybody knows that the ban imposed on media organisations by Pervez Musharraf is unconstitutional and even when the regime has allowed the channels back on air, it has sliced off all the productions that it viewed with suspicion.”

Ms Rehman said that the amended ordinance was nothing more than a piece of paper and had no constitutional value for Pemra to expect the media organisations to abide by it. “The amended ordinance has neither been approved by parliament nor have the media organisations been consulted before drafting it. Its value, therefore, is the same as that of a martial law decree, i.e. absolutely unconstitutional.”

Ms Rehman said PPP would continue to demand a halt to Pemra’s intimidation spree against the media. “Being an extended arm of the regime, Pemra in its current form is completely unacceptable to the entire nation. It has always been a controversial body and all its orders are the extension of the dictatorial ambitions of the Musharraf regime. More than a media regulatory body, Pemra has essentially turned out to be an organ that misses no chance to muzzle the media.”

She warned Pemra against using its latest allegation against the media as an excuse to ban the small number of television channels currently on air. “The PPP will not allow Pemra to play with the people’s right to information,” she said, adding that Pemra should not only back off, but it should remove all curbs on Geo and other TV channels. She said Pemra had no right to decide what was “anti-state” and what was not.

She demanded that Pemra should refrain from declaring any anchor appearing on any TV channel an undesired one.