KARACHI, May 3: There has been a growing resentment over the private TV channels’ tactics to lure general public to their costly telephone calls in collaboration with the PTCL. Telephone subscribers are perturbed over their increasing telephone bills due to these ‘call mania’ created by the fascinating campaigns by the channels.

The regional office of Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra), Sindh, has constantly been receiving complaints from the subscribers in this regard.

They said that such a call, with the prefix 0900, cost them Rs24 per minute and usually a recorded message kept telling the caller to wait.

Pointing out that many of the callers appeared children, Pemra officials observed that a normal call on these number cost the subscriber an average of Rs200-250 per call.

A Pemra statement, terming the 0900-related ads a ‘lottery campaign’ reminded: “There are laws passed by the Authority that restrict a station from broadcasting material that promotes a lottery and advertisement that perpetuates fraud.”

A Pemra official revealed that the Authority was considering measures to deal with the situation as the number of complainants approaching it was increasing day by day.

The official told APP that the Pemra has so far received about 50 written complaints whereas the number of those lodging their complaints by telephone ran into hundreds.

Under the Pemra laws “anyone having a complaint or concern about a specific programme that he feels is false or misleading, may send a letter to the local station and the affiliated network involved. In that way, station management responsible for selecting the material can be made aware of the concerns of their audience.

The Pemra receives complaints on 111-737-111 till midnight.—APP