The Failure to Regulate: Why PEMRA Must Act Before It’s Too Late
When a new drama goes on air in Pakistan, it carries the potential to shape public perception far beyond the realm of entertainment. Television has long been a medium where families expect to see...
When a new drama goes on air in Pakistan, it carries the potential to shape public perception far beyond the realm of entertainment. Television has long been a medium where families expect to see stories that reflect society while reinforcing shared values. Yet, in recent years, audiences have been confronted with something else entirely: pistols presented as tokens of love, coercion disguised as romance, and religious sensitivities brushed aside for the sake of spectacle. The public’s outrage has been understandable, but the more pressing question is: why is such content allowed to air in the first place?
Where Was the Regulator?
The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) was created for precisely this purpose: to regulate what reaches the nation’s screens and to safeguard public interest. Its legal framework, from the PEMRA Ordinance of 2002 to the Code of Conduct for Electronic Media enforced in 2015, makes it clear that content glorifying violence, undermining religious values, or breaching cultural sensitivities is not permissible. Specific clauses prohibit content that could “incite violence,” “undermine Islamic values,” or “offend societal norms.” Yet, dramas romanticizing guns and toxic relationships have aired unchallenged, right in prime time.
PEMRA’s track record exposes a troubling inconsistency. The authority has taken swift action in the past against dramas showing “suggestive clothing” or minor instances of intimacy. However, when it comes to the romanticization of guns and coercion, issues far more damaging in a society already grappling with violence, PEMRA often remains silent. This selective application of regulation reflects an institution more concerned with appearances than with deeper threats to culture, morality, and family safety.
The Structural Weakness in PEMRA’s System
Even these lapses, however, point to a larger systemic flaw. PEMRA’s monitoring model is reactive, not preventive. It intervenes only after a program has been aired and public complaints have piled up. By then, the damage is irreversible. Families have already been exposed to damaging images and messages, and societal debates are already inflamed. This raises the fundamental question: why does Pakistan not have a mechanism to check dramas before they are broadcast? Why must families endure inappropriate content first, only to see regulators act belatedly after outrage builds? A preventive review process is not only common sense; it is also international best practice.
Lessons from Other Countries
Examples from other Muslim-majority countries highlight how this can be done. In Turkey, the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) has the power to review and block programs before they go on air, ensuring that family hours remain suitable for all audiences. Similarly, in Iran, state television operates under a strict pre-broadcast review system that filters scripts and final episodes to prevent content that violates cultural and religious values. These mechanisms may be criticized in the West as restrictive, but they are grounded in the recognition that media is not just entertainment, it shapes values, behaviors, and perceptions. Pakistan, which faces its own struggles with rising violence, moral confusion, and external cultural influence, has even greater need for such safeguards.
The Role of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
It is here that the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MoIB) must step in. The state has both a constitutional and moral duty to protect its citizens, particularly families, from content that undermines religion, culture, or social harmony. That responsibility cannot be discharged through fines or warnings after damage has been done. What is required is a pre-broadcast review system: a censorship or review board with the mandate to examine both scripts and final productions before airing. Such a board must be professional and representative. It should include Islamic scholars to safeguard religious sensitivities, cultural experts to preserve traditions, and media professionals to balance creative freedom with responsibility. This would not amount to silencing creativity, writers and directors could still tell powerful stories, but freedom in a society must always be balanced with accountability, especially when mass media has the power to normalize harmful ideas.
A Test Case in Regulatory Failure
The airing of violent, coercive, and insensitive content in prime time is not just another controversy. It is a case study in regulatory failure. By allowing guns to be dressed up as passion and coercion to masquerade as romance, such dramas blur the line between love and aggression in front of millions of households. For young viewers in particular, such imagery is not harmless entertainment. It creates dangerous associations that can shape real-world attitudes and behaviors.
The fact that this unfolded at prime time, Pakistan’s peak family-viewing hour, only magnifies the problem. PEMRA’s silence, until such dramas have already sparked controversy, demonstrates that its system is fundamentally ill-equipped to meet its mandate. Without structural reform, similar content will continue to slip through, steadily eroding values and normalizing what society rejects.
The Way Forward
The way forward is clear. Pakistan cannot rely on PEMRA’s limited, after-the-fact policing. A new censorship or review board is urgently needed, one that operates proactively, not reactively. Family hours must be protected by law, not by hope. Cultural and Islamic principles must be upheld through institutional safeguards, not through the goodwill of broadcasters chasing ratings. The government must treat this issue with urgency. Every day of delay allows more damaging content to enter households, weakening the cultural and moral fabric of society. The establishment of a pre-screening mechanism, modeled on successful systems in Turkey and Iran but tailored to Pakistan’s context, would provide the protection families deserve.
Conclusion
The recent airing of televised violence should serve as a wake-up call, not just about one drama, but about the weakness of an entire regulatory system. It exposed how entertainment channels prioritize profits over principles and how PEMRA’s reactive framework fails to shield families from harmful content. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting must act now, not with token fines or delayed bans, but with real reform. The choice before the government is stark: either it protects its citizens and culture, or it continues leaving Pakistani values at the mercy of prime-time television. What hangs in the balance is more than ratings or controversies. It is the cultural integrity, moral clarity, and family safety of a nation.
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