Author: PTI
Publication: Daily Excelsior
Date: January 22, 2006
URL: http://www.dailyexcelsior.com/web1/06jan22/news.htm#7
Cable operators in Sindh province blacked
out Pakistani channels for the third day today demanding lifting of a ban
on 35 mainly Indian entertainment channels in spite of raids by police to
force them to resume operations and threat of legal action.
"We are committed to our decision to
go off the air for an indefinite period until our demands are accepted,"
Khalid Shaikh, chairman, Cable-Operators Association of Pakistan (CAP) said
about the continuing black-out in the southern province including capital
Karachi.
Most of the banned channels are Indian-based
and immensely popular in Pakistan due to their steady diet of soaps and drama
series.
The provincial authorities have, however,
tried to make cable operators resume their operations. Sindh Home Minister
Rauf Siddiqui even threatened legal action if the cable operators did not
resume their operations. But the strike was complete and effective.
The agitation continued even though police
raided the offices of some major cable operators in different parts of Karachi
city and forced them to resume their operations, the Daily Times reported.
During the raids, those operators went back
on air but soon after the police's departure they blacked them out again.
Sources said that the police also raided various places to arrest CAP officials
but they went underground.
Shaikh said the cable operators in the Punjab,
NWFP and Islamabad supported the strike in Sindh and may announce their own
soon.
"They are facing similar difficulties,"
he said.
Shaikh said the authorities were threatening
the cable operators of grave consequences but they would stick to their decision.
The CAP chief wondered why Pakistan Electronic
Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) was not permitting channels that had applied
for landing rights.
"This question can only be answered by
PEMRA officials because it is intriguing and incomprehensible," he said.
But a PEMRA spokesman claimed that the 35
channels were banned because they were telecasting programmes devoid of Pakistani
religious values and said the ban would continue.
Some of the viewers who were quoted by the
Daily Times however defended the Indian channels.
"The Indian soaps are family dramas and
do not propagate unethical values; they are popular because they reflect the
life we are normally acquainted with. And what do our private channels show
that reflect the true values of society?" one of them asked.
The cable operators said they had suffered
huge financial losses when thousands of clients disconnected their service
after the ban was imposed.
"No one can stick to a business which
offers no profits," the CAP leader said.
Cable operators also blamed the Pakistan private
channels saying that they were lobbying hard with the Government to ban the
Indian channels even while raising the content of India-produced serials and
dramas in their own channels.
