The failure to report on the visit by newly appointed Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's to his hometown of Lahore last week, has cost 17 Pakistan Television (PTV) officials their jobs, media outlet Dawn reported.
Imran Bashir Khan, deputy controller of PTV's VVIP coverage wing in Pakistan's capital Islamabad, is among the 17 who have been suspended from their jobs.
The channel claimed that the incident happened because of unavailability of an "advanced laptop" needed to upload and subsequently live-stream the PM's visit to Kot Lakhpat Jail and the Ramazan Bazaars in Pakistan's second largest city on 24 April.
A special team featuring senior journalists and video producers is generally kept on stand-by to cover VVIP visits, such as the Prime Minister's, according to the standard operating procedure in the country.
These reporters and videographers are equipped with the best kit, including advanced laptops to ensure that video uploads and live-streaming isn't upset by any kind of a technical snag. The main team is based in the capital city of Islamabad and escorts the PM wherever he goes in and out of Pakistan.
However, the whole debacle seems to have occurred because of a misunderstanding between PTV's Lahore centre and its head office in Islamabad.
According to Dawn, the Lahore centre had been informed of Sharif's visit, and the officials there had written to headquarters that they were lacking an "advanced laptop".
"The Prime Minister of Pakistan was scheduled to visit Lahore … the Press Information Department demanded an editing team with a laptop along with the News team for timely editing and feeding to the relevant area," the Lahore centre said in a letter.
"Since we don't have any laptop editing facility at the Lahore centre, we hired a laptop with the editing facility and deputed staff from the centre, but for a permanent arrangement we must have the same facility as the centre," the letter further stated.
Despite Lahore centre's continuous demands for a laptop, the chief of reporting at the state-run television channel in the Pakistani capital ignored the issue and instead suggested renting a device.
With the authorities in Islamabad refusing to back down, the situation hit rock bottom during Sharif's 24 April visit and the general manager of the Lahore centre was forced to bring his personal laptop to ensure that the PM's events were covered by the VVIP coverage team.
But by the time the team tried to upload the footage, the laptop's battery had died.
With video footage unavailable, PTV was compelled to cover the entire event in an audio-only format.