Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Monday directed the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) to decide the matter regarding the ban on Geo TV Programme Inam Ghar within in one month.

A two-member bench of the apex court comprising Justice Dost Muhammad Khan and Justice Qazi Faez Isa also disposed of the appeal filed by PEMRA challenging the Sindh High Court (SHC) order.

Earlier, a notice was issued to Geo TV for airing indecent scenes of a girl committing suicide and a participant of the programme Inam Ghar abusing during the show

On June 29, the SHC had granted a stay and suspended the notification of banning the transmission of the Geo TV Programnme Inam Ghar for three days.

However, a two-judge bench ruled that as the rest of the four allegations/charges fell within the domain of PEMRA, therefore, it may proceed with the same according to the law and rules on the subject and to conclude the matter as was agreed at the bar within 30 days, which shall commence after Eid holidays.

The court ruled that the appeal filed by the respondent before the SHC had become infructuous and might be disposed of accordingly.

The court in its order stated that at the very outset, the learned counsel for the parties agreed that the main CPLA be decided in the terms that so far as the suspension of the show/programme for three days by PEMRA was concerned, due to an injunction order of the learned High Court of Sindh a very narrow margin of time was left and because the matter was listed for hearing on Monday before the said court, hence to that extent the petition had almost become infructuous.

The court further ruled that the rest of the four charges were still alive and to be inquired into/investigated by the COC and after receiving the recommendations the PEMRA (competent authority) would look into it while complying with all the rules and provisions of law on the subject and would also consider the effect of the apology to be tendered publicly by the channel and through the print media.

The court in its ruling noted that many other channels, like the one under consideration, had not installed censoring devices, particularly a time delaying mechanism to cut off and expunge the offending part of the live show/programme and bring it in conformity with the PEMRA rules and provisions of the Ordinance.

Earlier during the course of hearing the court asked the learned counsel for PEMRA as to whether the regulator had any facility to check the time delaying mechanism.

Responding to which the counsel for PEMRA Kashif Hanif stated that a team of experts would soon inspect all the channels to ensure that such a device i.e. time delaying mechanism was in place so that undesirable and offending programmes or spoken words were not aired and the same were blocked.

The court further observed that if a channel violated the code of conduct, framed by the authority, than the authority could proceed against the channel while using its full authority.