HYDERABAD, May 11: Local cable operators announced on Sunday they would shut down the cable network after the end of there 24-hour ultimatum to Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) to cancel the licences issued on or after Jan 1.

The leaders of the group, Mukhtar Ahmed, Raheel Kaimkhani and Asif Abbasi said at a news conference at the press club that they would be compelled to close their business if Pemra failed to meet their demands.

They demanded that the Pemra chief Ashfaq Ahmed Jumani should be suspended, old cable operators should be provided protection and their representatives should be taken into confidence over new rules and regulations.

They said that if the new licenses were not cancelled they would send their licenses to Pemra and stage hunger strikes. All the cable operators of the country would close down their businesses, they said.

HUNGER STRIKE: A group of veterinary doctors warned on Sunday that if the government did not provide them jobs, they would stage a demonstration outside the Sindh Assembly during its next session and burn their degrees

Leaders of the doctors who staged a token hunger strike under the banner of Progressive Veterinary Doctors Forum outside the press club said that as many as 2,000 veterinary doctors were unemployed whereas the in-service vets were denied basic facilities and allowances, which were being given to their counterparts in other provinces.

They regretted that they had been protesting for two years but no government official or political leader had so far taken any notice of their plight.