SHC disposes of Pemra’s appeal against court order to lift ban on PTI media coverage

KARACHI: Disposing of an intra-court appeal filed against an interim order to lift a ban on the media coverage of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and its leadership, a division bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday asked its single-judge bench to decide the matter in six weeks.

The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) had filed the intra-court appeal against the interim short order of the single-judge bench of the SHC which had suspended in November the impugned letter issued by Pemra on May 31.

The two-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Muhammad Shafi Siddiqui and Justice Jawad Akbar Sarwana disposed of the appeal after hearing the parties concerned.

The bench in its order noted that after almost seven months since the short order was passed by a single-judge bench in November, the reasons had not been surfaced until June 29 and now such reasons were placed before the judges.

“It seems that after a delay of almost seven months reasons for passing ‘ad-interim order’ were provided and the application is yet to be heard and decided finally,” it added.

The bench also said that the lawyer for the appellant had attempted to argue that by granting ad-interim order i.e., by suspending the impugned notification, virtually entire suit had been decided.

It further noted that seemingly, it’s an ad-interim order as expressed by the single-judge bench and judges opted not to comment on it as the same might cause prejudice to any of the two sides or would have an effect one way or the other.

“However, in view of pressing interest of the parties, we deem it appropriate to dispose of this appeal with direction that the pending injunction application be heard and decided at the earliest, preferably in about six weeks’ time after hearing the parties and/or their counsel,” it concluded.

On Nov 13, the single-judge bench of the SHC suspended the impugned letter of Pemra for the reasons to be recorded later on a lawsuit filed by an activist of the PTI.

The suit was filed on Aug 1 last year, a few days before the incarceration of party founder Imran Khan shortly following his conviction in the Toshakhana case and impugned directive of Pemra to private news television channels to ban the coverage of the PTI chief and his party.

The plaintiff had submitted that in an indirect reference to the PTI and its leadership, Pemra’s impugned letter said, “Attention of all the licensees is drawn to tragic incident occurred on ‘Black Day’ i.e., May 9, 2023 wherein state and public properties were attacked, innocent lives were endangered and anti-state sentiments were prompted, attempting to weaken the Federal of Pakistan and state institutions”.

Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2024