LAHORE: Bol News, a media network owned by busted diploma mill Axact, appears to have beaten the competition by promising three private airplanes, cars, houses and hundreds of tolas of gold for winners its upcoming game show “Game Show Aisay Chalay Ga”, literally, “Game Show will work like this” hosted by former Geo televangelist Aamir Liaquat. Coincidently, three is also the minimum number of airplanes needed to start an airline in Pakistan. If Bol wasn’t this generous, it could have started its own airline business with a fleet of three airplanes. Aamir Liaquat – famous for TRP stunts like handing out babies on live TV especially in Ramzan transmission shows – announced during his marathon Shab-e-Baraat transmission that his Ramzan game show will be “grandest” once again. What followed left everyone in a state of shock. Liaquat announced at least 3 airplanes as jackpot prize for winners. Click here to watch video. <iframe src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/SRBE35jbOx8″ width=”560″ height=”315″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen=”allowfullscreen”></iframe> While most people laughed it out online and thought the network won’t come through, there appeared a sponsored post on Facebook with the promo of Bol’s upcoming show; both image and video ads showed aircrafts, cars and houses implying the network was indeed going to reward the winners with the aircrafts. There are no details at this point about the format of the show and how what will it take to ‘win’ the aircraft. When Daily Times contacted the show’s team for comment, they confirmed that aircrafts will indeed be given as prizes but “we cannot reveal more details till the format is unveiled.” Despite the fact that former presidents Zardari (first civilian president to have completed his term) and Musharraf (the military dictator being tried for treason) have been appearing in their own “number 1 shows” on the network, BOL still seems to be struggling for an audience and offering “airplanes” might just be their way of getting it. Aamir Liaquat’s controversial remarks In January of this year, Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) imposed a ban on Aamir Liaquat’s show for hate speech and incitement to violence after he accused the abducted bloggers, liberal activists and rival TV networks of blasphemy. Liaquat, however, succeeded in getting a break when the Supreme Court allowed the show to go on with the condition that his future shows would be devoid of hate speech. In March, PEMRA again sent the channel a notice demanding the televangelist to apologise unconditionally. Liaquat has also been under fire for his anti-Ahmadiyya shows, a charge he denies. From diploma mill to PR mill BOL’s programming revolves around claims that cannot be substantiated. It follows the mantra of say it now and worry about it later or rather repeat a falsehood until it starts sounding the truth. Following are some of the other times that Axact’s network made the claims that could not be verified. “The No. 1 News Channel”: Bol’s number-one-in-everything claim is baffling and leaves one wondering which agency rated this channel and everything that is on it and by what standards? They promote their shows as “Pakistan’s number 1 show”, their ticker as “Pakistan’s number 1 ticker”, “Pakistan’s number 1 headline” and so on. The network’s PR has been running promos on TV showing a bunch of ‘rating agencies’ that rated the network as number 1; however, almost all of those rating agencies are fictitious. This wouldn’t be the first time Axact – the parent company of BOL – created something fictitious. An employee of Axact has been convicted in the United States (US) of creating fictitious universities and even accreditation agencies. Watch the said promo here: <iframe src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/vEvUrfBt2PI” width=”560″ height=”315″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen=”allowfullscreen”></iframe> TV and web presence in all regional languages along with English, Urdu, Chinese and Russian: BOL TV has been running promos claiming that the web presence of Bol News and its content is available in “all regional languages” including Punjabi, Sindhi, Balochi, Pashto along with English, Russian and Chinese. Now this would be pretty impressive if this was true. The only problem is: this simply is not true. BOL News does not even have a separate website. The only web presence BOL has is the corporate website BolNetwork.com. Watch the promo: <iframe src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/EwtUWn7lP14″ width=”560″ height=”315″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen=”allowfullscreen”></iframe> The diploma mill busted: New York Times’ journalist Declan Walsh published an investigative report that exposed some hard facts in May 2015. This was followed by a massive investigation into the scam. Axact CEO Shoaib Shaikh was acquitted of money laundering charges on basis of lack of evidence but the investigation into the diploma mill business remains pending. Axact claimed complete innocence and termed the whole episode as an ‘international conspiracy’. It still maintains its stance of innocence in Pakistan while its Vice President of International Affairs Umair Hamid pleaded guilty to fraud charges. Legal trouble: BOL News has had a turbulent start. Its licences were canceled first in September 2015 and then again in early May for lack of security clearance from the Interior Ministry. The licence was eventually restored vide a court order by Sindh High Court (SHC) two days later. After which, Chairman PEMRA Absar Alam held a press conference on May 8 and made some disturbing revelations saying PEMRA can’t work as regulatory body if it’s not given the needed power and that he and his team members are receiving threatening calls demanding the channel be restored across all cable networks. Pots calling the kettle black? Recently, an advert appeared in the newspapers where most TV channels have jointly asked the government not to allow shady money in the media industry. While this is a valid demand, other channels are on weak footing given the history of some of the tycoons who own Pakistan’s media industry. The problem here is that Pakistan’s media industry like other sectors is unregulated and the state has failed to act in time thereby creating a problem that it will have to deal with. If banning channels was the solution, then quite a few need to be out of business. Reportedly, a good mix of hard cash and deep power will enable BOL to continue unless the courts and the executive take a clear stance and the parliament legislates to improve our media climate. Until then, let’s plan to get a private jet. The writer is the Digital Editor, Daily Times. He can be reached at me@farhanjanjua.com and tweets @farhanjanjua