LAHORE, July 30: The Press and Publications Ordinance of 1963 is the existing law that regulates the press but a new law is on the anvil and is likely to be promulgated within a month, Deputy Attorney-General Khwaja Saeeduz Zafar submitted in the Lahore High Court on Tuesday.

Assisting the court in adjudication of two cross petitions challenging the Islamabad district magistrate’s order in respect of the declaration of an Urdu daily, he said the PPO was repealed and replaced by the Registration of Printing Press and Publications Ordinance in 1986.

It became a serial ordinance and was repromulgated every four months. In the meanwhile, the Federal Shariat Court and the Shariat Appellate Bench of the Supreme Court ordered certain amendments to be made and the ordinance was accordingly amended and repromulgated.

The ordinance was never placed before the parliament and it finally lapsed in 1995. The DAG, whose arguments were later adopted by Advocate-General Maqbool Ilhai Malik, said when a temporary law like the RPPO expired, the permanent law (like the PPO) it repealed stood revived. That was why the 1963 ordinance, which was enacted by the National Assembly the same year, was the existing law.

However, a new law to regulate the press had been drafted and would be promulgated after the cabinet approval, he said.

Justice M Javed Buttar, who heard the petitions, remanded the case to the district magistrate for reconsideration under the law.