KARACHI, Aug 19: Cable operators in the city begun their three-day strike on Monday.

The president of the All Pakistan Terrestrial Cable Operators Association, Hanif Ghani, told Dawn that the cable operators would keep their networks off till Wednesday.

“The cable operators in the city are going on strike for three reasons. First, they can no longer brook police harassment, which is almost always aimed at extracting money from us. Second, the rules and regulations recently laid down by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority have made it nearly impossible for us to operate at profit. Third, the new tariff imposed by the city government is unacceptable.”

A cable operator, Khalid, explained that recently the city government laid down some new rules under which the cable operators were supposed to pay Rs50 per subscriber in addition to Rs25,000 registration fee.

“We also pay a certain amount to the KESC for using poles,” he said. Mr Ghani, however, said that Pemra officials had approached them and negotiations were already under way.