By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s leading television news channel defended its decision on Monday to broadcast songs and film clips from India while reporting the death of the legendary singer Asha Bhosle, after the country’s electronic media regulator threatened fines, suspension or outright revocation of its license for violating a long-standing ban on Indian content.
The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) issued the show-cause notice on Sunday, one day after Bhosle, one of South Asia’s most celebrated playback singers, died at 92 in Mumbai. The notice accused Geo News of “wilful defiance” of a 2018 Supreme Court ruling that prohibits the airing of Indian material on Pakistani television.
Azhar Abbas, managing director of Geo News and president of the Association of Electronic Media Editors and News Directors, announced the regulatory action on the social media platform X. In a detailed response, he described the broadcast as standard journalistic practice when covering the death of a towering cultural figure. “It has always been customary to revisit and celebrate the work of iconic artists when reporting on them,” Abbas wrote. “In fact, for an artist of Asha Bhosle’s stature, we should have shared even more of her timeless and memorable songs than we did. Yet, Pakistan’s electronic media regulator, Pemra, has chosen to restrict this.”
Bhosle recorded thousands of songs over a career that spanned more than seven decades and remained one of the most recognisable voices across the Indian subcontinent. Admired on both sides of the border, she maintained artistic connections with Pakistan, including collaborations with the late qawwali master Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Pakistani celebrities and fans took to social media on Sunday to pay tribute, underscoring the deep cultural affinity that persists despite decades of political hostility between the nuclear-armed neighbors.
Pemra’s notice, dated April 12, focused on Geo News’s inclusion of Indian songs and visuals from Indian films during its coverage of Bhosle’s death. The regulator said the broadcast violated Section 20(f) of the Pemra Ordinance of 2002, as amended in 2023, which requires channels to comply with approved codes of conduct and maintain an in-house monitoring committee. It also cited breaches of Rule 15(1) of the Pemra Rules of 2009, Regulation 18(1)(g) of the Pemra Television Broadcast Station Operations Regulations of 2012, and multiple provisions — Clauses 4(10), 5, 17, 20 and 24 — of the Electronic Media (Programmes and Advertisements) Code of Conduct of 2015.
The channel’s parent company, Independent Media Corporation, has been ordered to submit a written explanation within 14 days and to have its chief executive appear for a hearing on April 27. Pemra warned that failure to satisfy the authority could trigger penalties under Sections 26 and 29A of the Pemra Ordinance, including fines, suspension or revocation of the broadcasting license.
The episode shows the enduring tension between Pakistan’s political and security-driven restrictions on Indian media and the shared artistic heritage that binds the two countries. Pakistan first imposed a ban on Indian content in 2016 amid heightened border tensions. That prohibition was initially struck down by the Lahore High Court but was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 2018. Since then, the rules have been enforced unevenly, often tightening during periods of diplomatic friction and loosening when relations thaw.
The regulatory action drew swift criticism from Pakistani political figures, including Senator Sherry Rehman, a prominent voice in the Pakistan Peoples Party. Rehman posted on X that Bhosle “did not just belong to one country, she defined an entire era of South Asian melodic content.” “Please, let’s not lose all perspective here, Pemra and start policing cultural transitions,” she added.
Geo News, which commands the largest audience share among Pakistani news channels, has not yet issued a formal legal response but signaled through Abbas’s public statement that it views the coverage as a legitimate journalistic tribute rather than a political provocation. For many viewers across the subcontinent, Bhosle’s voice — instantly familiar from countless Bollywood soundtracks — transcended national boundaries. Her death prompted an outpouring of grief that crossed the heavily militarized border, even as regulators moved to police how that grief could be expressed on Pakistani airwaves.
The Pemra notice arrives at a time when cross-border cultural exchanges, once a modest bridge between the two societies, remain tightly controlled. Successive governments in both countries have used entertainment bans as low-cost signals of resolve during diplomatic standoffs, even as audiences on both sides continue to consume each other’s music, films and television dramas through satellite, the internet and smuggled DVDs.
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