Govt denies role, Pemra sees uplink as illegal

ISLAMABAD: A spokesman for the government on Wednesday strongly denied what he called the allegation of the management of the Geo Group, which they are propagating on their network, that the government was involved in the closure of the Geo Super transmission.

The spokesman said in a press release that the government had nothing to do with this matter as it essentially seems to be a technical issue on the part of the said TV channel. The spokesman further said that the government has no control to block or stop any foreign channel that has legal rights for transmission in Pakistan.

The spokesman said that the cable operators were not receiving the signal of Geo Super which apparently has been blocked by the management of the said TV channel itself. The drama has been scripted by its management to malign the government and gain cheap publicity.

The government has urged the Pakistan Broadcasting Association (PBA) to constitute a committee and investigate the matter threadbare. It has also requested PBA to make its findings public, the press release said.

The spokesman said the allegation of closure of Geo Super channel transmission seems to be a figment of the imagination of the management of this TV channel and a part of the maligned campaigns running against the government over a period of three years. The spokesman said that government would continue to uphold the freedom of expression and independence of media without any bias or prejudice.

Our Monitoring Desk adds: Explaining his position regarding closure of Geo Super channel by Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra), its Chairman Dr Abdul Jabbar said the Authority had given neither any order nor taken any action against the channel. He said that Geo News was making baseless allegations in this regard that are devoid of facts. He said Geo Super has been established in Dubai and the Pemra has no technology to close channels being run from abroad.

Dr Abdul Jabbar: “Whatever allegations are levelled against the government and the Pemra about Geo Super, Geo Group has itself closed broadcasts of this channel on the satellite. However, the channel broadcasts are being displayed to the people on cable TV across Pakistan. Had this channel been closed by the Pemra, it would have not been available on the cable. Secondly, Geo Super is a foreign channel. It is a Dubai-based channel. It has to uplink from Dubai. However, it wants uplink from Pakistan illegally. In order to legalise this illegal uplink, they submitted an application to us on 4th (April, 2011), seeking permission to uplink temporarily. When we received the application, in reply we sought certain information because they have filed a contempt plea against us in the Supreme Court and the same is fixed for hearing on 8th (April). They perhaps want to give a wrong information to the court. It is an injustice with us.”