PTV admission before LHC: ‘PSL broadcast rights’ award to ARY not transparent’

LAHORE: Pakistan Television (PTV) counsel admitted before the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday the process of awarding PSL broadcast rights to ARY was not transparent. A two-member bench comprising Justice Abid Aziz Sheikh and Justice Asim Hafeez fixed October 4 for hearing appeals of Geo Super and Blitz against the verdict of the single bench. The court also issued notice to ARY for October 4, and decided to hear the miscellaneous application with the appeals.

The PTV counsel stated before the court that the single bench had not been given appropriate assistance, and admitted that the ARY-PTI collaboration for the broadcast rights was really not transparent.

To Justice Abid Aziz Sheikh’s query that did the PTV challenge the single bench verdict, the counsel stated that when the PTV reviewed the documents after the verdict, it was too late to file an appeal.

The Geo Super counsel requested the court to give date for hearing of appeals as the world cup matches were going to start from October 16, lest people should miss the matches. Justice Sheikh remarked in a lighter vein that it would be clear after the very first match that whether people want to watch the matches or not.

It may be recalled that the PTV issued a tender for partnership for ICC broadcast rights without mentioning PSL. The ARY consortium was made partner of ICC broadcast rights at a time when it had neither a sports channel nor its licence. A Sports also did not exist at that time. All this happened unbeknown to PTV board of directors. The PTV sports did not inform its directors and secured their approval about broadcast with Ten Sports. Later, ARY was made a partner silently.