The leader of the Popular Party of Pakistan (PPP), Hassan Murtaza, claimed that Pakistan’s television (PTV) faces an artificial financial crisis, claiming that the situation has left employees without wages for several months.
In a statement, Murtaza accused the government of deliberately weakening the state station as part of a plan to privatize its valuable properties.
He claimed that the privatization lobby is pointing to the real estate assets of PTV, which are worth billions of rupees, and warned about possible auctions of buildings.
He said that salaries and pensions were unnecessary and linked to the elimination of the RS35 PTV rate of electricity invoices.
Murtaza also held the Minister of Information and the managing director of PTV for what he described as the almost bankruptcy of the broadcaster.
The PPP leader criticized the privatization of Pakistan steel factories and other state companies, qualifying it as a harmful to workers and aimed at benefiting specific groups.
Read: State television spent almost RS140m on energy invoices
Previously, Pakistan’s state television headquarters accumulated electricity bills higher than RS138.94 million in the last five fiscal years, according to official figures presented to the National Assembly.
According to a written response presented by the Ministry of Information and Badera in the NA, the PTV electricity expense has constantly increased each year, with a total of RS138,936,472 spent from 2020-21 to 2024-25.
In fiscal year 2020-21, the Electricity Law draft was at RS17,287,399, which increased to RS24,045,382 in 2021-22, followed by RS28,895,833 in 2022-23.
The ascending trend continued in 2023-24, when RS37,693,235 was spent. Although the figure decreased slightly by 2024-25, it still ascended to RS31,014,623.
The cumulative total during the five years reached RS138,936,472.
