ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting on Monday directed the ministry to chalk out a comprehensive business plan for making Pakistan Television (PTV) financially stable. The committee also directed for exploring other revenue streams for income generation.

The committee, which met under the chairmanship of Pullain Baloch at the Pemra Headquarters, while discussing present state of the PTV opined that an inquiry should be conducted to identify reasons and people responsible for bringing the PTV to its present state where it was not lagging behind in paying salaries and other financial benefits to its employees.

According to a press release, Information Minister Ataullah Tarar apprised the committee members that a comprehensive marketing strategy had been prepared and overhauling of the entire PTV was being carried out to reduce extra financial burden.

The minister said that sports rights of the international and local cricket tournaments had been acquired for revenue generation. He admitted that the PTV had lagged in payment of salaries, stat9ing that release of grant from the government would ease the payment of its financial obligations.

The committee while taking up agenda related to Pemra directed to pursue approval of its rules from the Cabinet Committee for Disposal of Legislative Cases.

The committee opined that regulating web-TVs and OTT platforms was imperative for providing level playing field for the traditional and legacy broadcast services, including entertainment and news channels.

The committee was also of the view that strict abidance to the religious and social norms was imperative and it could not be achieved in absence of regulatory framework.

The committee directed Pemra to monitor telecast of advertisements not conforming to the religious and social norms and take appropriate action. The committee also asked Pemra to monitor telecast of public service messages on TV channels obligated under the law.

The committee was apprised that due to extensive growth of the web TVs and OTT content services and their excessive disruption had posed a real challenge in terms of content regulation. It was further apprised that presently these services were not subject to any regulations, therefore, a consultative process was carried out with stakeholders and light touch regulations had been proposed in the Pemra rules for regulation of these forums.

The committee directed ministry to actively pursue case with the Federal Investigative Agency (FIA) regarding embezzlement of billions of rupees in pension accounts of Associated Press of Pakistan (APP).

The committee was apprised that incumbent management of the APP needed to be credited for unearthing the scam. It was further apprised that an FIR had been registered by the FIA against the culprits.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2025