Ata Tarar says strict action against reemergence of all betting companies

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ata Tarar said Thursday the government has asked the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) to take strict action against reemerging surrogate betting companies.

The minister was responding to The News query reemergence of the surrogate betting companies, which the information ministry had already shut down last year.

Tarar said that no advertisements of betting were being done on TV channels and newspapers.

On the issue of betting applications which have resurfaced, Ata Tarrar said that he will take immediate measures to block all the applications as soon as he arrives back to Pakistan.

Now more than 150 betting companies have infiltrated the country and are operating despite a crackdown by the caretaker government of Anwar ul Haq Kakar last year.

These companies are normalising gambling and betting practices in the country and dragging the country’s economy into further turmoil by transferring enormous amounts of untaxed money abroad (in dollars) to the ‘hostile’ countries, said a notification issued by the caretaker government.