KARACHI, Jan 20: Cable TV transmissions in the city remained suspended on the second consecutive day, Friday, as cable operators refused to call off their protest against what they called the ‘biased policy’ of the Pakistan Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra).

However, the transmissions in DHA and its adjoining areas, where the ‘World Call’ provides underground cable service, continued uninterrupted, according to a cable operator.

On Friday, police tried to intimidate some cable operators in Burns Road and Liaquatabad areas forcing them to resume the service. The SHOs concerned went to the cable operator’s offices and got the cable service resumed. However, the operators discontinued the service later, said Mr Khalid Arain, Vice-Chairman of the Cable Operators Association of Pakistan.

In Gulshan-i-Iqbal also, police tried to get the cable transmission resumed by conducting a raids on the offices of cable operators in the Mashriq Centre. After breaking the grills and locks early on Friday, the police made their way into the offices and beat up two employees to force them to resume the service.

Mr Khalid Arain, said that some content of the Star Plus and Sony channels were being aired by local private channels, and despite payment of the landing rights by the Star Plus, Pemra was still not allowing it to be aired.

He said that the Sindh government and the MQM’s Rabita Committee had contacted the association, but there was no breakthrough as yet.

Sindh Home Minister Rauf Siddiqui also issued a stern warning to cable operators to immediately end, what he called, ‘the illegal strike’ in Sindh to avoid legal action.

In a statement, the minister said that people had been paying monthly fee to cable operators and, as such, the abrupt suspension of the service was uncalled for.

He warned the striking cable operators of action if they did not resume their service without delay.

Mr Siddiqui noted that the abrupt suspension of the transmission had been causing mental fatigue to subscribers, and said that the affected subscribers should not pay the fee for the current month. He advised people to dial ‘15’ helpline or approach the area police station if their cable operator insisted on the payment.

The minister also asked cable operators not to transmit indecent movies or TV channels to avoid legal action.

A woman from Federal B Area said that some of the foreign channels banned by Pemra had emerged as popular among Pakistani subscribers not because of their objectionable, obscene or distorted contents, but because their programmes touched the issues of real life, and contained entertainment, information and education contents equally. Ironically, she wondered, the same contents were allowed to be aired by a local private TV channel. She questioned the Pemra’s double standards.

A small cable-operator in Gulistan-i-Jauhar said that the association had drawn a wrong strategy of withholding or not showing all channels, except PTV. “The office-bearers of the association are fully aware of the fact that a certain quarter is paving the way for a ‘blackout’ of a couple of the much viewed Indian channels.”

A university student said that the irony was that the government did not liked the Indian entertainment and news channels to be shown in Pakistan, but at the same time, the rulers and politicians did like to appear on the Indian channels or see their statements to be aired through the same.

Citizens are also of the view that newspapers and TVs should work for equal showing of all channels and discourage the elements discriminating among the Urdu channels. “Many of the Pakistan-oriented electronic channels, which have obviously been unable to invest heavily or augment their contents to match the taste of Pakistani viewers, are also showing the contents which the authorities term ‘objectionable’ or ‘inflicted from across the border’,” said a media professional.