{"id":125733,"date":"2026-05-12T10:49:36","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T05:49:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?p=125733"},"modified":"2026-05-12T11:06:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T06:06:23","slug":"minister-announces-ad-ban-on-channel-that-laid-off-170-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125733\/","title":{"rendered":"Minister announces \u2018ad ban\u2019 on channel that laid off 170 employees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>ISLAMABAD(National Times)- Members of the Parliamentary Reporters Association (PRA) staged a walkout from the press gallery during Monday\u2019s sitting of the National Assembly to protest layoffs and non-payment of dues by a couple of private TV channels, prompting the information minister to intervene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Subsequently, a delegation of MNAs and senators, including Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, visited the media room to discuss the issue, while MQM-P senior leader Syed Aminul Haq and other lawmakers spoke about the plight faced by media professionals during their speeches in the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Addressing the house later, Tarar said that all government advertisements had been halted to a private TV channel \u2014 which recently fired 170 employees \u2014 until it provided an explanation for the action and what could be done to arbitrate the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the interaction, the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1895865\">ad ban<\/a>&nbsp;on&nbsp;<em>Dawn<\/em>&nbsp;also came up. Responding to the journalists\u2019 concerns, Tarar announced that ads for&nbsp;<em>Dawn<\/em>&nbsp;were being resu\u00adm\u00ad\u00aded. He claimed that ads had been released to DawnNewsTV. \u201cThe advertisements for&nbsp;<em>Dawn<\/em>&nbsp;have been released and a settlement will soon be reached with the newspaper as well,\u201d the minister said after the PRA meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition, he said that the management of another TV channel that had not paid its employees for three mo\u00ad\u00ad\u00adnths had been summoned to Islamabad for discussions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The minister asked the media owners to \u201csit down\u201d with their employees to reach a settlement, adding that the overburdening of junior employees \u201cwas not acceptable\u201d. He said the federal government could arbitrate if so desired by the negotiating parties, noting, \u201cRepresentatives of both houses are here and in good numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOur biggest responsibility is dues,\u201d Tarar said, adding that he was satisfied that the government had paid all dues in a timely manner, with employees as their priority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The walkout ended after the discussion and the minister\u2019s assurances that he would take up the matter with the relevant parties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ISLAMABAD(National Times)- Members of the Parliamentary Reporters Association (PRA) staged a walkout from the press gallery during Monday\u2019s sitting of the National Assembly to protest layoffs and non-payment of dues by a couple of private TV channels, prompting the information minister to intervene. Subsequently, a delegation of MNAs and senators, including Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Minister announces \u2018ad ban\u2019 on channel that laid off 170 employees - Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125733\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Minister announces \u2018ad ban\u2019 on channel that laid off 170 employees - Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ISLAMABAD(National Times)- Members of the Parliamentary Reporters Association (PRA) staged a walkout from the press gallery during Monday\u2019s sitting of the National Assembly to protest layoffs and non-payment of dues by a couple of private TV channels, prompting the information minister to intervene. 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