How to File a Media Complaint to PEMRA in 2025
The surrogate gambling ad returns every prime time like a bad rash, the anchor declares someone guilty before the courts have seen the file, and your cable operator has dropped the one channel you actually pay for. In 2025 you do not have to shout at the television — you can make the broadcast regulator do it for you, in about thirty seconds of your evening.
Pick your channel first
PEMRA runs a genuinely accessible intake: the portal at complaints.pemra.gov.pk, the toll-free 0800-73672 (which also works as a saved WhatsApp contact for sending the photo straight from your couch), the PEMRA mobile app, and the Pakistan Citizen Portal, which auto-routes media complaints. Overseas? Use the web portal — the phone number works from inside Pakistan only.
File it in three steps
One: register on the portal with your CNIC and mobile number; an OTP lands and you are in. Two: pick the category — obscene content, false news or hate speech, surrogate ads (betting, alcohol, gutka), or signal and cable billing disputes. Three: the evidence. Screenshots in PNG or JPG, video clips under 10 MB, and the three mandatory fields the form will not submit without: channel name, broadcast date, and time of the violation. Pull those off the screen before you start; the session times out after fifteen idle minutes.
Keep the description factual and cold. The Council of Complaints weighs what happened, not how furious you are.
The clock, and what happens when it runs out
Acknowledgement with a tracking ID is instant. The channel is asked for its response within two weeks, and a decision — fine, warning or ban — must come within 30 days. A channel that ignores the notice can be proceeded against anyway. If the 30 days pass in silence, walk into a Council of Complaints office: PEMRA HQ at F-8 Markaz Islamabad, 77-E/1 Main Gulberg in Lahore, KDA Scheme-1 Clifton in Karachi, Hayatabad Phase-5 in Peshawar, or Jinnah Road in Quetta. Beyond that, the Federal Ombudsman at ombudsman.gov.pk takes the same file, free.
And when a channel does get pulled off air, remember that in Gaza the transmitters themselves are targets — a working broadcast, even a bad one, is something people have died protecting.
Honestly, some evenings the only sensible response to television is to leave for somewhere with no signal at all. We know a few such places. The HTG Travels desk runs trips into the northern valleys where the only breaking news is the river in the evening — bring the family, let the airwaves rest, and file your complaints when you get back.
