July 12, 2007	Thursday	Jamadi-us-Sani 26, 1428

KARACHI, July 11: The Sindh High Court extended on Wednesday the stay granted in favour of a television channel against adverse action by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority until July 16.

Federal government standing counsel Sofia Saeed and Advocate Kashif Hanif appeared for the information ministry and Pemra and sought time for filing comments on behalf of the respondents. A division bench comprising Justices Mohammad Moosa K. Leghari and Khilji Arif Hussain adjourned the hearing to July 16, when other petitions involving the authority and its amended legal framework would come up for hearing, and extended its interim protective order till that date.

The channel, Royal TV, submitted through Advocate Rasheed A. Razvi that it had been on air for long after the completion of its test transmissions. The permission granted to it by Pemra should be deemed to have been confirmed after the satisfactory completion of test transmissions.

However, Pemra neither terminated nor extended its permission till June 27 when the channel was issued a show cause notice for termination of its ‘landing rights’. The real reason for the threatened cancellation of its licence was spot coverage of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry’s visit to Multan, the petitioner alleged.