Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The top court has stopped the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) from taking any adverse action against channels over violation of the regulator’s Ramazan transmission guidelines until the Islamabad High Court (IHC) passes an appropriate order in this regard.

The apex court gave its decision after hearing a petition filed by the Pakistan Broadcasters Association (PBA), challenging the IHC orders wherein it authorised PEMRA to censor TV content, including dramas and commercials.

On March 17, Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqi of the IHC had appointed a committee under PEMRA with the task to examine the content of TV shows, dramas and advertisements. A two-judge bench headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan took up the petition for hearing. Barrister Syed Ali Zafar, the counsel for the PBA, appeared before the bench and informed the court that PEMRA could not act as a “monitoring police” and dictate how channels should broadcast their programmes under the law.

He argued that the court had no power or jurisdiction under the constitution to become a regulator of TV programmes. “Further, the committee constituted includes the government represented through the secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, PEMRA represented through chairman and DG (Technical), the Attorney General’s office through the additional attorney general and Ansar Abbasi, a journalist, thereby making it totally partial,” the petition contended.

The counsel for the PBA further contended that by constituting the committee to determine the question of obscenity, indecency or pornography, the IHC had acted contrary to the provisions of articles 4, 9, 10A and 18 of the constitution.

The barrister pointed out that the regulatory body was bound by the Code of Conduct 2015, under which media content was controlled by the broadcasters under a self-regulatory regime.

He further contended that for PEMRA to issue directives and regulations outside the ambit of the Code of Conduct 2015 was in contravention of the Code of Conduct 2015 itself, the PEMRA Ordinance and the constitution.

He contended that PEMRA had breached the code of conduct and issued regulations to control and censor the media against the fundamental rights of the freedom of expression, the freedom of press and the freedom of information, protected under articles 19 and 19A of the constitution. The petition submitted that it was only during the dictatorial regime of General Ziaul Haq that such “arbitrary and whimsical censorship under the garb of indecency” was imposed on the media, and the issuance of these regulations by PEMRA was similar to that.