Indian channels operating sans distribution licence banned: Pemra

Indian TV entertainment and news channels were banned in Pakistan, as they were operating without distribution licences. According to a senior official of Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra), the authorities over time received numerous complaints against the contents being aired by the Indian channels. Local artists, religious parties and a section of media have been regularly kept on asking the government to take action and ban airing of different dramas screened by Indian channels.
The official said that if the Indian TV channel operators apply for licenses in Pakistan, the authority will welcome the move, but so far none of them has applied for distribution license, therefore if any cable operator is airing content of Indian TV channels it is illegal and Pemra will take action against the violators.
"Yes many local TV channels are showing foreign dramas and films but they are showing these as per Pemra rules and paying taxes to the government," the official stated. Star Plus, an Indian entertainment channel has emerged as one of the most popular channels in Pakistan. Its success depends on interest taken by middle class housewives, drawn to programme dominated by glossy soap operas. According to Pakistan's leading public opinion polls firm, Gallup Survey recently released ranking report of the most popular entertainment channels in the country. The report was compiled on the basis of the Gallup TV Ratings Services, the only national TV ratings data available in Pakistan.
"According to the report, Star Plus tops the list and had an average daily reach of around 12 million cable and satellite viewers from January 2013 to date. Second in line are PTV Home and a private news channel with approximately 8 million average daily cable and satellite viewers," the report said.
A Gallup official told Business Recorder that Gallup Pakistan's TV ratings service is based on a panel of over 5,000 households spread across both urban and rural areas of Pakistan. Apart from its success in Pakistan, Star Plus is one of the most popular channels in its homeland, India, and its stylish Indian soap operas are one of the main features of its largely middle-class audience in Pakistan. Even though much of Pakistan is relatively socially conservative, the themes of these popular soap operas are mostly related to family and domestic conflicts.
According to a student of National College of Art (NCA) Rawalpindi canny program scheduling has boosted the soap operas' popularity. The soaps are telecast twice during the day - once during prime time at 8 pm, and again in the morning. Most of Pakistan's housewives are busy with household chores in the evening, so they have to skip the drama serial in the evening. But they can always catch up with the latest developments in the soap operas in the morning, when they have more free time.
According to a leading Pakistani TV artist Jamal Laghari, Pakistani television viewers are attracted to the new and innovative production techniques used by Indian soap operas, while in contrast "Pakistan is a suppressed society and when people here watch India drama, in which there is a lot of fashion people are attracted to it."
He also complained that in Pakistan art and culture has deteriorated to a large extent, and "here we are facing a situation where people dub a drama from a foreign language and translate it into Urdu just because in this drama there are fashionable ladies."
Talking to the Business Recorder over continuous ban on televisions programs in Pakistan and Indian, Syed Qalb-i-Hassan vice chairman of the Pakistan Bar Council termed the ban on both side television channels transmission is against the norms of practicality saying it doesn't make sense to stop television transmissions in the present era. He added that to bar a television transmission means not to reap the fruits of cyber regime.
"Yes, it is mandatory for both the States to abide by all the rules and regulations to avoid transmissions which lead to propaganda and furious approaches against each other rather than giving information about economic opportunities on both the sides besides, social and cultural values," Hassan said.
Former Federal Law Minister and an international lawyer Ahmer Bilal Soofi said that television channel dissemination should be opened on reciprocal basis as a Confidence Building Measure between Pakistan and India. He further said that such action will hopefully diminish mutual hostility and pave the path for improving bilateral relations.