Plea against blockage of TV channels put off
LAHORE – Chief Justice Lahore High Court (LHC) Khawaja Muhammad Sharif on Thursday disposed of a petition against blockage of private TV channels observing that the petition has borne fruit because Supreme Court of Pakistan has started hearing of the same case.
The judge said start of hearings of the case in the supreme court there is not need to keep the case pending at the Lahore High Court.
“There is no need to keep the case pending at the Lahore High Court, as the hearing of the case is in the Supreme Court”, Khawaja Sharif said.
It may be mentioned that chief justice Khawaja Sharif had directed federal Information Minister and Chairman PEMRA to immediately restore broadcastings of private news channels, which had been blocked allegedly in the wake of floods coverage and news reports relating to incident of shoe throwing at President Zardari in Birmingham, UK. The petition was filed by Muhammad Ashraf Gondal through his counsel M Araf Gondal advocate challenging blockage of private TV channels by PEMRA on hidden instructions of the federal govt and PPP’s top leadership.
The counsel said in retaliation to the news on TV channels about incident of shoe throwing at Asif Ali Zardari, the PPP workers and leaders are protesting and attacking offices of famous news channels to stop electronic media from reporting. He said PPP workers are burning copies of newspapers of a renowned media group besides attacks of PPP workers at offices of various TV channels across the country.
Source: The Nation
Date:8/20/2010
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