PTV fails to submit details of ARY deal to LHC in PSL rights case

• LHC hears case of Pakistan Super League's broadcasting rights.
• Failure to submit documents points to PTV's "dishonesty": Geo Super's counsel.
• Counsel says PTV did not submit documents in its reply despite court’s order.

LAHORE: State broadcaster Pakistan Television (PTV) has failed to submit details of its joint venture with ARY over the broadcasting rights of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) to the Lahore High Court (LHC) — despite the court’s order, The News reported

The LHC was hearing Thursday a Geo Super petition against the PTV-ARY joint venture on granting broadcasting rights of PSL. Though PCB, PTV and ARY submitted their replies to the court, the latter two did not give details of their deal.

Counsel for Geo Super Behzad Haider said that the PTV has not submitted bidding process documents in its reply despite the court’s order.

He said the petition was filed on January 4, and it was a fixed case, but surprisingly counsel for PCB, PTV, and ARY had appeared before the court without any notice and pleaded that the petition should be dismissed.

He said when the court was informed that no bidding process had been followed while granting broadcasting rights of PSL in the PTV-ARY agreement, counsel for the state broadcaster claimed it had transparently fulfilled all pre-requisites, and has documents to support its claim.

When the judge insisted that you have appeared without notice and where the documents are, the PTV counsel sought an hour to submit the bid, agreement venture, and other documents. At this, the judge gave two days to submit a reply along with the documents.

The Geo Super counsel further said he had filed a reply whose copy was given to PTV and ARY, but the state broadcaster did not submit its reply along with any document including the bidding process.

"They attached only two ads to the reply which are already attached to our application," he said.

"The ads are on pages 14 and 15, but PTV presented no documents despite the claim that it would present all documents showing transparency in the bidding process," the counsel said.

Haider added that when the hearing would be conducted on January 19, he would raise all the questions before the court. The counsel said he would adopt the stance that showing no documents points to their dishonesty.