ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb on Thursday informed the National Assembly that “deliberate negligence of the previous Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) regime to benefit a private channel was behind the
lapse in the FIFA World Cup’s coverage by the Pakistan Television (PTV)”
She apprised the National Assembly that a complete report on the FIFA World Cup’s coverage lapse by the PTV would be tabled before the House after completion to reveal facts behind missing an important international event due to deliberate negligence of the previous regime to benefit a private channel.
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) was probing the issue of telecasting rights to A-Sports was underway and its report on completion would be presented in the House, she added.
The minister was responding to a question of Shagufta Jumani of Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) pertaining to the failure of PTV to live telecast the Federation International Football Association (FIFA) World Cup 2022 hosted by Qatar that had incurred huge revenue loss and deprived the nation of a global event, besides supplementary questions from other assembly members.
Marriyum said getting the football world cup’s rights was not done in months rather it was a year long process that started in 2021. The previous regime did not start the process timely that left the Pakistani screens deprived of an international event.
However, her ministry under he leadership engaged Tensports to manage coverage of the world cup and got it telecast across country, but the exclusive rights were not available to the PTV, she added.
Earlier, Parliamentary Secretary for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhary Muhammad Shahbaz Babar told the House that the PTV had always broadcast the international football tournaments.
He said the bidding for the FIFA World Cup’s telecast rights was closed in 2021. He alleged that former information minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain deliberately gave the rights to the private sports channel A-Sports.
A departmental report, in that regard, was being compiled and would be sent to the Minister for Information who would brief the House soon whereas strict action would be taken against the responsible for the negligence, he added.
Sheikh Rohale Asghar of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) said the FIFA World Cup issue was a previous matter but the Pakistan Super League-8 was aslo not broadcasted live on the PTV and asked the parliamentary secretary to apprise the House about any action if taken in that regard.
Shagufta Jumani, however, rejected the three-member departmental committee probing the issue and termed it a mere eye wash as all of the members were from the PTV, who themselves were responsible for the negligence.
Separately, the Information Minister also said that the economic situation had been improving in the country with a gradual reduction in “federal, trade and current deficits.”
“When we assumed responsibility of the government, Pakistan had been out of the IMF programme, our default risk had risen, the government was losing more than Rs 100 billion monthly on unaffordable fuel subsidy. Last year our imports were $80 billion and exports were $31 billion,” said the minister in a series of tweets.
She said the country had the “largest trade deficit of $49 billion and current account deficit of $17.5 billion”. “We also had record budget deficits in all PTI years,” she added.
Marriyum, however, said that the economy was being stabilized by reducing the current account deficits.
The minister said the prices of commodities were increased due to the flood and repayment of the massive loans taken by the PTI government.
“But we have increased BISP payments and given free Atta to the poor and
things are finally looking up.”
