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KARACHI, June 27: The Sindh High Court asked a federal attorney on Wednesday to submit official comments on two petitions challenging the validity of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority Ordinance, 2007.
The first petition, moved by Sindh Bar Council members Salahuddin Gandapur and Mohammad Aqil, said the ordinance that amends the liberal provisions of the original Pemra Ordinance of 2002 puts unreasonable restrictions on the electronic media in violation of the freedom of expression guaranteed by Article 19 of the Constitution.
It empowers the authority to seize equipment and seal the premises of a television channel for contravention of guidelines issued by it. It confers excessive power on Pemra to frame rules and issue guidelines and take punitive action for their violation. Besides, a Senate session was due on June 5 and the promulgation of a presidential ordinance was unwarranted on June 4.
A subsequent petition moved by the People’s Lawyers Forum through Advocate Shahadat Awan raised identical objections to the vires of the ordinance. The court allowed hearing of the petitions during the summer vacation and they came up before a division bench comprising Justices Mohammad Athar Saeed and Qaiser Iqbal. Appearing for the SBC members, Advocate Mustafa Lakhani contended that the ordinance had been issued to bar the live coverage of Chief Justice Mohammad Iftikhar Chaudhry’s visits and speeches.
Representing the PLF, Advocate Mian Raza Rabbani argued that an ordinance could be issued by the president only on the advice of the prime minister. There was nothing on the record to show that the ordinance was approved by the federal cabinet or an advice was tendered by the prime minister.
Federal government standing counsel Sofia Shah sought time for filing rejoinders to the petitions and the bench fixed July 6 for the purpose.
CDGK offer spurned
A trust running a mosque in PIB Colony rejected on Wednesday an offer of Rs12.5 million for its shifting to an adjacent plot to facilitate the construction of the Lyari Expressway.
City district government counsel Manzoor Ahmed informed a Sindh High Court division bench hearing the trust’s petition that the compensation had been calculated at the rate of Rs10,000 per square yard as a special case to pave the way for the expressway project. The residents, the petitioner trust and the ‘namazis’ can raise a mosque on the alternative site in accordance with the requirements.
The counsel for the petitioner, Jamia Masjid Qadri Trust, Shaukat Ali Shaikh, however, argued that sufficient space was available for diversion of the expressway and the mosque and the adjoining shrine of Pir Kifayat Ali Shah and madressa could be spared by the project. The expressway has been realigned to save a church from demolition near Tin Hatti. Besides, he said, the compensation did not cover the cost of construction of the mosque.
The bench, which consisted of Justices Mohammad Athar Saeed and Qaiser Iqbal, adjourned further hearing to July 3. The CDGK executive district officer for revenue, Saleh Ahmed Farooqui, and the expressway project director, Yusuf Barakzai, were present in the court.
Eduction secretary’s bail
An SHC bench comprising Justices Mohammad Athar Saeed and Qaiser Iqbal on Wednesday extended the interim bail granted to the provincial education secretary in the sum of Rs500,000 till July 16.
The secretary, flight-lieutenant (retired) Sabhago Khan Jatoi, has approached the court through Advocate Raja Qureshi saying that he was being investigated by the National Accountability Bureau, Sindh, for acquiring assets beyond known sources of his income.
