There is an increasing trend of advertisements and TV serials all over the world. Not a long ago, Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) has banned the broadcast of TV advertisements produced in India or featuring Indian actors.
“However, it has been observed that advertisements of various products of multinationals which are either produced in India or carrying Indian characters/talent [are] being aired on electronic media,” said the letter shared on Pemra’s official Twitter account.
Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority banned the broadcast of all TV ads featuring Indian characters with immediate effect by invoking Section 27(a) of the Pemra Ordinance 2002.
Pakistan’s Chief Justice Saqib Nisar earlier said that country’s Supreme Court will not permit Indian content to be aired on Pakistani TV channels as it “damages our culture”.
Pemra’s counsel Zafar Iqbal Kalanauri told the Supreme Court that foreign content was prohibited on court orders before a High Court issued a stay. The authority’s Chairman Saleem Baig added: 65 per cent of the content telecasted on Filmazia channel was ‘foreign’ and that the number sometimes goes as high as 80 per cent. At this, the Chief Justice remarked: “We will not allow Indian content to be aired on (Pakistani) channels.”
On being told that “Filmazia was not a news channel but was an entertainment channel and that it did not do any propaganda”, the Chief Justice countered the Pemra counsel by saying: “It is, however, damaging our culture.”
In 2016, Pemra had imposed a ban on showing Indian content on local television and FM radio channels. The report said that the decision was mainly seen as a tit-for-tat move after similar actions were taken by some channels and the serial industry in India against Pakistani content and artists.
Lahore High Court lifted the Pemra-imposed ban in 2017, stating it ‘null and void’ as the federal government had no complaints regarding the same. However, in October 2018, the Supreme Court reinstated the ban on the airing of Indian content on local television channels.
For the uninitiated, Pakistan has banned some of the advertisements being produced in its country because it sparked massive controversy on the internet and some of which were eventually banned Here’s the list of TV ads which were banned in Pakistan. Watch the video below.