Daily Times

The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has prohibited all television channels from airing news or reports on the F-9 Park rape case in order to protect the victim’s identity, it emerged on Tuesday. On Feb 2, a first information report (FIR) was registered at Islamabad’s Margalla police station under Section 376 (punishment for rape). According to the complainant, she had gone to the park along with a male colleague when two men stopped them at gunpoint and took them towards a jungle.

She said the men beat her up, raped her and told her to “not come to the park at this time”.

In a notification issued on Feb 5, PEMRA noted that few satellite television channels were running reports with regard to the case wherein the identity of the survivor was revealed. “This is a violation of clause 8 of Pemra Electronic Media (Programmes and Advertisements) Code of Conduct 2015. “While exercising powers conferred under Section 27 (a) of the PEMRA Ordinance, 2002, as amended by Pemra (Amendment) Act 2007, broadcast/rebroadcast of news/reports with regard to F-9 Park Islamabad incident is PROHIBITED, with immediate effect,” the notification said. In the case of non-compliance, it warned, the licence of the television channel may be suspended without any show cause notice in the public interest along with other enabling provisions of law.

The F-9 rape case has sparked an outrage across the country. A day earlier, the National Assembly Deputy Speaker Zahid Akram Durrani directed the police chief to take action against the culprits and submit a report in the house within 24 hours. So far, the police have been unable to arrest the perpetrators. The investigators have, however, issued a sketch of one of the suspects and circulated it to get help in the identification of the culprits. Police also said that they were working on geo-fencing to trace the culprits. A forensic team also visited the crime scene four days after the incident to collect evidence, they added.