0
KARACHI, Nov 27: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday adjourned the hearing of a petition against the suspension of Geo TV channels’ transmission to Thursday for detailed arguments.
The petition was briefly taken up by a reconstituted division bench consisting of Justices Munib Ahmed Khan and Rana M. Shamim (who replaced Justice A.R. Farooq Pirzada). A sizable number of Geo employees, including executives, anchors and correspondents, attended the proceedings and many more stood outside the main gate of the court building.
The petition has been moved by the Independent Media Organisation (Pvt) Limited, the owner of Geo News, Geo Super, Geo Entertainment and Aag television channels.
Advocate Mohammad Ali Mazhar argued that there was no justification for the ban. The channels had violated no provision of the Pakistan Media Regulatory Authority Ordinance as they were taken off the air simultaneously with the proclamation of emergency on November 3. In fact, there was no occasion for any violation.
Besides being unconstitutional and illegal, the ban had serious consequences, one of which was default on payment of salaries to the 4,500-strong staff employed by the channels.
Even if the ban on Geo News could somehow be justified, there was no reason for curbs on entertainment and sports channels.
The chain was being discriminated against, he argued.
Deputy Attorney-General Rizwan Ahmed Siddiqui submitted that while the suspension of transmissions might initially have been ordered by Pemra, a ban was subsequently imposed by Dubai (UAE) authorities. They banned the two channels beaming their transmissions from the Emirate. One of them, ARYOne World, had since resumed normal operations.
There was no discrimination against the Geo channels; they had themselves singled themselves out. All other channels suspended on Nov 3 had agreed to a code of conduct and were airing their transmissions.
The DAG also said that the attorney-general desired to appear in the case, and requested that the hearing be adjourned for 10 days to enable the AG to make his submissions.
Partially granting the request, the bench adjourned the case to Thursday (Nov 29).
Bank employees’ case
A division bench of the Sindh High Court on Tuesday dismissed bail applications of two bank employees booked by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for allegedly misappropriating over Rs8.29 million.
Manzoor Hasan Shahani, former operations manager, and Mohammad Ali Othu, former head cashier, of the NBP’s Sehwan branch, submitted that they had been falsely implicated in a criminal reference. They said they made no offer for refund of allegedly embezzled amounts to depositors as alleged by the NAB. In fact, they were compelled to sign some cheques in favour of certain depositors to create a piece of incriminating evidence.
NAB counsel Ainuddin Khan said there was prima facie evidence to implicate the accused. They had voluntarily drawn cheques in favour of certain depositors to evade prosecution for embezzlement. It was for the trial court to assess the evidence. Their continued detention was necessary for an expeditious trial, he added. The bench comprised Justices Yasmin Abbasy and Mahmood Alam Rizvi.
