Shaan Shahid: PTV should wake up and do its job

In a time when local television channels are faced with the strict censorship by the state-owned Pakistan Media Regulatory Authority, actor Shaan Shahid thinks that state-owned Pakistan Television needs to produce better content.

In an interview with Arab News, he said the government could not control the content of private television channels, but that programmers on PTV should ‘wake up and do their jobs.’

“These are private channels. You can’t control the content of private channels. They will make what they think is right,” he said. “But you’ve got a channel that’s beyond satellite and that’s PTV.”

Related: Shaan urges fans to stay positive

In the past, Shahid has been critical of the broadcast of the historical Turkish series Dirilis Ertugrul in Pakistan and said the national television channel should focus on local legends and heroes.

“If PTV was producing what the Prime Minister thinks should be produced. I want to see that content,” he said. “I don’t know who’s doing the programming at PTV, but whoever it is needs to wake up and do his job.”

The Waar actor talked about the impact of foreign content being imported in the country and said that it should be filtered.

“Right now a lot of media is being used for various reasons… it’s not just entertainment anymore,” he said. “There’s hybrid warfare going on and content has a huge part to play in it. So I feel it should be filtered in a way.”

Shahid expressed his opinion on national politics too and thinks that the PTI-led government should be given enough time to govern.

“The race is not yet finished,” he said. “Give him [Imran Khan] enough time to prove himself. As a Pakistani I feel that this [PTI government] is the last hope for democracy in the country.”