LAHORE: A petition was moved before the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday, requesting the court to restrain private television channels from airing of talk shows on Panamagate case. Amjad Farooq Bismil, a local resident, has filed the petition. Counsel for petitioner A K Dogar argued, “The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) rules bar all television channels to broadcast programmes and hold debates on the matters pending before courts. He stated that that it was a universally accepted principle that when a case was pending in a court – whether subordinate or superior – the matter was said to be sub-judice. He submitted that in Pakistan news anchors daily acted like judges and participants of their programmes argued like counsels for parties and even the remarks made by judges were subjected to criticism during the television programmes. He requested the court to issues directives to the PEMRA to enforce its law and stop all television channels from holding programmes on sub-judice matters. Earlier on May 3, Justice Shahid Karim on a petition of a lawyer M H Mujahid had sought replies from the federal government and the PEMRA on the similar matter. Mujahid had sought enforcement of the PEMRA Ordinance 2002, with effect to restriction on television channel to broadcast any programme or discussion on matter sub-judice before a court of law. Published in Daily Times, July 22nd , 2017.