Minister’s boot gimmick draws Pemra’s wrath
islamabad — The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) on Thursday decided to ban ARY News current affairs programme Off the
Record for 60 days under section 27 of the Pemra Ordinance 2002 as amended by Pemra ( Amendment) Act 2007.
According to a notification, during the programme Off the
Record, hosted by Kashif Abbasi, one of the panelists Faisal Vawda performed a very unethical act while starting his arguments on the subject being discussed.
The notification said that host Kashif Abbasi was quite unprofessional who actually did nothing to intervene or stop the unethical act performed by one of the participants during the live show and rather took the entire incident casually and kept smiling.
The content aired live during the programme prima facie appeared to be a willful attempt to debase and demean a state institution by dragging it unnecessarily in a debate.
The act of the host is also violation of various clauses of the Pemra Ordinance.
In view of these reasons the authority decided to ban the programme for 60 days starting from January 16 under section 27 of the Pemra Ordinance 2002 as amended by Pemra ( Amendment) Act 2007.
Appearance of programme host Kashif Abbasi has also been banned for 60 days and during this period he will not conduct any other programme on any television channel as host, guest or the expert.
In case of non-compliance by the ARY News the authority shall proceed under Pemra laws which may result in suspension and revocation of satellite TV channel conferred to Ms ARY communications Pvt Ltd ARY News.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan has restricted Faisal Vawda from appearing on any talk show for the next two weeks, premier’s aide Firdous Ashiq Awan tweeted on Thursday. — APP