Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority(PEMRA) has allegedly violated transparency in the FM radio license auction, which would incur a loss of billions of rupees in the buying and selling of licenses by a favoured group.
The FM Radio License Auction was held on December 18, 2025, organized by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), Islamabad, in which several well-known companies from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa submitted applications. After the final scrutiny, 53 companies were declared eligible as per PEMRA rules and regulations. It was expected that all the shortlisted companies would fully participate in the bidding process; however, serious allegations of irregularities, alleged violations of rules, and corruption emerged during the auction.
The Scrutiny Committee constituted by PEMRA did not transparently discharge its responsibilities, and out of the 53 selected companies, 25 were not issued bidding notifications for various reasons or technical grounds, while advance notifications were issued to some favored companies. Moreover, the companies concerned were also instructed to keep the information in this regard confidential.
Later, as a result of several meetings and pressure from the affected companies with the PEMRA office and the relevant authorities, 10 more companies were included, after which a total of 43 companies were invited for bidding.
Before the bidding, a meeting of some company owners from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (who had been pre-selected) was held in a private building in Islamabad. In this meeting, FM channels from different districts were informally distributed among the 43 companies.
Allegedly, cash and blank checks were also exchanged as collateral, and an undertaking was taken that no company would bid more than the prescribed limit during the auction so that mutual interests would not be affected. This process is being described as a joint plan of the office bearers and committee members of some company owners’ organization.
The company owners who already own FM channels in various districts including Mardan, Takht Bhai, Nowshera, Peshawar, Swabi, Dera Ismail Khan, Hangu, Dir and Bajaur were afraid that if the bids in the auction reached crores of rupees, it could also affect the renewal fees of their existing licenses in the future.
In this context, the strategy was allegedly adopted to settle the matters before the auction so that new licenses could be obtained at a lower price and the pressure on future renewal fees would not increase. It may be recalled that the FM channels that were auctioned last year for more than Rs 50 million were allotted for lakhs of rupees this year. As a result, there is a risk of a loss of crores of rupees to the national exchequer.
Moreover, some officials received huge amounts of bribes to benefit their favourites. Some companies were allegedly disqualified illegally based on a lack of “deal”, which raises serious concerns.
Before the bidding, a group of favored individuals from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had made deals worth crores of rupees and assured various homeopathic doctors and cosmetics company owners that they would get licenses for them at a low price in any case. What happened on the day of bidding was exactly what was planned. A certain group obtained licenses for FM channels in the name of various companies at a low price and later gave them to other people at high prices.
It may be recalled that due to differences and concerns between the favored group and the affected group, very strict security arrangements were made at the PEMRA office on the day of bidding, which has never been done in any other bidding before. Only those people who had been identified in advance were allowed inside, due to which many affected company owners kept wandering on the road outside, and inside the favored group was busy bidding. All this is on the security record of PEMRA.
Now that the notification of issuance of licenses has not been issued by PEMRA, this has brought to light a problem between the favored group and the licensed doctors, cosmetics companies, and other groups. The favored group is demanding more money so that the PEMRA committee can be satisfied and the notification can be issued as soon as possible.
Now all eyes are on the newly appointed Chairman of PEMRA. The question is whether she will order a transparent and impartial investigation into this controversial auction of FM radio licenses, take action against the responsible officers, or will this matter also be buried in the dust of time like other controversies? It is better that this entire process be declared null and void, and a transparent bidding process should be done again, so that the path of corruption can be blocked.
This whole situation has not only affected the reputation of PEMRA but has also raised serious questions about the requirements of transparency and accountability in the media regulation system.
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