Pemra ordinance, ban on CJ’s live coverage challenged
KARACHI, June 16: The Pakistan People’s Party has challenged the Pemra Amendment Ordinance and the ban on live coverage of the reception of the Chief Justice of Pakistan by the bar associations.
The President of People’s Lawyers Forum, Shahdat Awan, filed a constitutional petition (D-1305/2007) under Article 199 of the constitution in the High Court of Sindh on Saturday.
Represented by Senators Farooq H. Naek and Mian Raza Rabbani, Mr Awan made the Federation of Pakistan through the ministry of parliamentary affairs, the federal minister for law and justice and the chairman of Pakistan Electronic Media Regulating Authority (Pemra) resondants.
He prayed to the court to declare the impugned Pemra Ordinance XXVII of 2007 “as without lawful authority and of no legal consequence”.
He also prayed to the court that the directives of the Pemra chairman prohibiting the live coverage of the reception of the Chief Justice of Pakistan by various bar associations might be adjudged as illegal and ultra vires to the law and the Constitution of Pakistan.
The PPP’s legal wing chief prayed to the court that the operation of the Pemra Amendment Ordinance and orders of the Pemra chairman might be held in abeyance till the decision of the petition.
The petitioner submitted that the impugned amendment ordinance and the consequential order of the Pemra chief were an affront to the parliament, which had dropped all such draconian provisions in the Pemra Ordinance of 2002 by promulgating the Pemra (Amendment) Act, 2007.
He maintained that the amendment act was passed through the painstaking five-month deliberation of the mediation committee, comprising eight Members of the National Assembly and as many Senators, which had heard all the stakeholders and provided for safeguards against such arbitrary action by introducing a council of complaints and making their prior opinion a condition precedent for any action by the authority.
“By re-enacting the very provision, the impugned amendment ordinance is tantamount to overruling the supremacy of the legislative body, i.e. the Parliament,” he contended.
Mr Awan submitted that the impugned amending ordinance and the directives of Pemra chairman were issued in violation of the Pemra Ordinance 2002 as amended by Act II of 2007 “as none of the grounds postulated for the action existed or were applicable to the visual coverage of the private television channels showing the welcome being given by the lawyers, political parties and other segments of the civil society”.
Source: Dawn
Date:6/17/2007
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