Chairman calms down a mini battle at PTV by removing MD

• Friday, 31 May 2013 00:00
• Written by  The Spokesman

SAEED MINHAS

ISLAMABAD: State run television PTV yet again witnessed a mini battle on Friday, which eventually was won over by secretary information, Agha Nadeem by the end of the day as he relieved Managing Director (MD), Engineer Mustafa Kamal of his duties and restored director Programs, Sajjad Ahmed on his seat. Allegations continue to be hurled through- out the day in treacherous building belly of PTV Islamabad by the supporter of each group against the others. They were accus- ing each other of violating the court orders, transgressing their respective jurisdiction, victimizing the director programs for not towing the line of MD, getting under the in- fluence of kickbacks mafias of private pro- duction houses and so on and so forth. The drama unfolded when director pro- gramming, Sajjad Ahmed received an order from MD, Mustafa Kamal for his transfer to the post of controller programming. MD has appointed Syed Shakir Uzair against this va- cated post. Ironically, Sajjad had himself posted Syed Qaiser Ali Shah against the va- cant post of controller programming just a few days back. But MD still sent him to a post where there was no vacancy. Meanwhile, sources close to Mustafa Kamal revealed that Sajjad Ahmed was re- moved for his involvement in the dodgy deals of buying private productions from a mafia of independent producers against hefty kick backs. It is interesting that despite having huge infrastructure and state of the art production facilities; PTV has stopped in-house production to facilitate private in- vestors to make hefty money on their aver- age dramas by dealing with the evaluation committees of the past.

Shahid Nadeem and then Hammad Ghaz- navi remained deputy managing directors in the past five years of PPP government and were responsible for finalizing the deals with the private production houses in their ca- pacity as head of evaluation committee of PTV. It was during Hammad Ghaznavi’s tenure that a drama which failed to attract any noticeable revenue or audience for PTV Home during its 13 episode contract was given an extension for 104 episodes. Sources believe that kickbacks ranging in millions exchanged hands in this one episode alone. They believe that under the same evalua- tion committee of the past, Hammad Ghaznivi and company rejected a drama, which is currently rated as top three dramas on the circuit after being picked up by a pri- vate TV channel (Hum TV). A number of such exchanges are also associated with Shahid Nadeem who happens to be the hus- band of a known TV artist from Lahore. When contacted Sajjad Ahmed refused to comment by saying that he has got nothing to do with anything and would not to talk on
this issue. However, independent sources believe that Sajjad is the only one in 13-member of board of directors from Balochistan and en- joys good reputation for streamlining the revenues and in-house productions. They revealed that Sajjad has increased the PTV Home’s revenue within a short span of time from few millions a month to Rs 13 million per day by picking up quality dramas from the market and increasing the low cost in- house productions. They said that as per sta- tistics in-house production of PTV now stands at 46 per cent of the whole content shown on PTV Home as compared to only 14 per cent during Hammad Ghaznavi and Shahid Nadeem’s tenures. Another proof presented in favour of Saj- jad was that he helped reform the evaluation committee by bringing in top professionals like Jamal Shah, Dr Tariq Aziz, Tauqeer Nasir, ISPR’s Brig. Yahya and even Samar Minallah. As PTV was sizzling hot with all these ac- cusations and counter allegations, evening
ushered another twist in this drama. Secre- tary Information Agha Nadeem, an MDG officer, after getting information of the lat- est orders of MD PTV without his approval sought an inquiry into the matter. Agha Nadeem could not be reached for any com- ments but senior officials at ministry of in- formation disclosed some interesting facts but only on condition of anonymity. They said that MD PTV was given an ad hoc charge and as per orders of the Islam- abad High Court (IHC) in the removal of Yusuf Baig Mirza case, Mustafa Kamal was given the task to run day to day affairs till a new MD is appointed through open compe- tition. Secretary information, by virtue of his office is also the chairman of the PTV. Therefore, they believe that MD was not au- thorized to transfer a director without seek- ing the approval of the chairman of board of directors. Since, such a transfer order was vi- olating the orders of IHC, therefore, chair- man had to ask acting MD to relieve his charge and handover the reigns of PTV to the chairman’s office. Ever since the removal of Yusuf Baig Mirza from the post of MD PTV by Court  in April this year, Mustafa Kamal had sacked over 200 employees from the PTV world besides sending many politically and highly paid re- cruits home which were hired by YBM dur- ing his four year rule on PTV empire. Removal of the acting MD is considered by many in PTV just another episode of an un- ending drama. They believe that with Nawaz Sharif government about to take oath of of- fice, seats like chairman, MD and even DMD will be filled by some new politically favoured cronies of the new regime. There- fore, they are expecting yet another spinning of the wheel and a game of chairs in the coming days if not weeks.