ISLAMABAD – The Senate Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting has directed the Pakistan Television Corporation to send a bill to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz for airing their major events on the state-run television during ten months since the former premier’s disqualification.
The meeting of the Senate body was presided over by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senator Faisal Javed on Monday in Islamabad while no any Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz senator was present in it.
A report submitted to the body revealed that the state-owned TV covered 101 major events of the former premier and his daughter during July 29, 2017 to May 11, 2018, despite the fact that they had not held any public office.
Nawaz Sharif’s address to the parliamentary party, Islamabad-Lahore rally and other major events were aired on the PTV, the report revealed, adding that Maryam Nawaz’s rally in NA-120 was covered for five hours and 17 minutes.
In the light of the report, Javed also asked the management of the television channel to send a bill to the members of the Sharif family, adding that a copy of the bill should be sent to former information minister Marriyum Aurangzeb as she did not take notice of giving coverage to the person holding no any public office, Dawn News reported.
He said that extraordinary airtime was allocated to Sharifs on public expense adding that it was a crime. Javed said that the amount to be recovered from Nawaz and Maryam will be used for clearing dues of the retired employees and purchasing of equipment.
He alleged that this was part of PML-N’s election campaign run using the national exchequer, adding that the PTI will make the PTV completely independent if it voted to the power.
Another report on giving coverage to other political parties and personalities shows that six parliamentary parties including PPP, PTI, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F (JUI-F), Awami National Party (ANP) and Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) were covered for total two hours and 43 minutes during 20 months (Nov 2016 to June 2018), the English daily reported.
PTI was giving a total airtime of 28 minutes; PPP 40 minutes, JUI-F 20, MQM 7, ANP five and JI got a minute and 42 seconds long coverage on PTV.
From July 2017 to May 2018, the state-run TV gave coverage to President Mamnoon Hussain for four hours and 42 minutes and the prime minister got 13 hours and 29 minutes airtime.
During the same time period, chief minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa got coverage of 17 minutes, CM Balochistan was covered for 1hrs 12 minutes, CM Punjab was covered for 1hrs 11minutes, CM Sindh got coverage of 1hrs 14 minutes and CM Gilgit-Baltistan got coverage of almost 30 minutes.
