Islamabad: Pakistan’s media regulator Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has decided to enforce a complete ban on Indian TV and radio contents from Friday, 21st October and warned that the licences of those found guilty of violating the ban will be suspended.
Apparently, PEMRA’s decision to ban airing of Indian content was based on the request of the federal government. The ban will come into effect at 3 PM on October 21, and radio and television stations which violate the ban will have their licences suspended without any prior shows cause notice,” PEMRA said in a statement.
The ban extends to all Indian content on cable and radio being aired in Pakistan. The authority also decided to cancel one-sided rights given to Indian media by the government of former military dictator Pervez Musharraf in 2006.
PEMRA has already decided to get tough with Indian contents after complaints that most of the local channels were using more than five per cent foreign contents as allowed by it.
The regulator on August 31 said that strict action would be taken against the channels airing foreign content more than the prescribed limit and traders selling illegal DTH sets.
The decision was implemented from October 16 as PEMRA launched crack down on those channels using foreign contents illegally.
Earlier in October, PEMRA granted its chairman Absar Alam final authority to revoke or suspend licenses of companies illegally using Indian content.
The developments are part of the ongoing tension between India and Pakistan after the terror attack on an Indian army base in Uri on 18th September.
