Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Saqib Nisar on Tuesday took sou moto notice of Lahore High Court’s (LHC) decision to ban contemptuous speeches of former Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif and daughter Maryam Nawaz from being aired on television.

CJP summoned the record of the contempt of court case against Nawaz and Maryam to further the proceedings.

During the last proceedings heard on Monday, Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) was ordered by Justice Muzahir Akbar Naqvi, heading a three-member bench, to decide about the petitions filed regarding ban on airing Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz’s speeches for 15 days.

PEMRA’s defense had informed that the authority had given a verdict, which as per the judge was later on dismissed by PEMRA due to technical error. Thus it was assumed that airing the anti-judiciary speeches was permitted.

However, Sharif’s defense argued that it was PEMRA’s responsibility to follow its code of conduct which went unnoticed by the Supreme Court (SC).

Previously, Amna Malik of Civil Society Network had filed a petition through advocate Azhar Siddiq stating that former PM Nawaz and daughter Maryam Nawaz had committed contempt of court during their speeches of Nawaz’s homecoming rally in November last year. The petition had been filed after a series of remarks passed by Sharifs against the judges who gave the verdict of Panama Papers case.

Earlier, SC had dismissed a contempt of court case against Nawaz, Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Captain (r) Safdar as Sharifs maintained the stance that they had passed comments on the judges’ unjust decision and not on the SC.