LAHORE: Lahore based real estate developer, Al Rehman Developers, on Wednesday took to social media announcing that it has bought Public News, which broadcasts national and international news, and current affairs.
Public News was founded in 2018 by media veteran Abdul Jabbar, who passed away in November 2022. Media mogul Yousaf Baig Mirza was appointed as the CEO afterwards.
A journalist associated with Public News informed Profit that the channel had been facing serious financial difficulties for the last two years which also resulted in a delay in the disbursement of staff salaries. He said that in these two years, the channel had also carried out heavy downsizing and discontinued most of their programmes.
“There are now reports that Public News has been bought by Al Rehman Developers but who will pay the dues remains unclear,” he said.
Earlier in the day, a Facebook page named Al Rehman Developers announced that Public News had been bought by the business. “Bringing forth their leadership and vision, we have no doubt that this news channel will thrive and become a reliable source of information for its viewers,” reads the post.
The company’s CEO, Mian Muhammad Mushtaq, runs a housing society named Al Rehman Gardens, which is located on Sharaqpur Road near Faizpur Interchange in Lahore.
The trend of real estate tycoons venturing into media is not new. Former senior minister Abdul Aleem Khan, who owns Park View Housing Society, bought a national news and current affairs based channel Samaa TV last year. Aleem Khan started a newspaper called Daily Waqt during Musharraf’s regime which was later acquired by Jang Group just after two years of its launch.
Similarly, another news channel SUNO TV is started by Saad Nazir, who runs the Blue World City housing project in Rawalpindi. While rumors that Express Media Group has been bought by property tycoon Malik Riaz are also circulating in the market, there is no confirmation or official announcement regarding the deal yet.
Previously, Malik Riaz bought Aap TV from anchor Aftab Iqbal but it was later the channel was shut down. Malik Riaz had also started a daily newspaper which was later handed over to another party. Similarly, News One channel was bought by Chaudhary Aurangzeb, owner of a housing society Kabir Town.
The media fraternity believes that the real estate sector is increasingly investing in the media industry, mainly to strengthen the former industry. Many housing projects of most real estate developers do not have any legal status. Under the guise of media group ownership, many developers continue to conduct several illegal activities, without having any accountability institutions take action against them.
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