ISLAMABAD: Justice Noorul Haq N. Qureshi of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday summoned Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) acting chairman Pervez Rathor in a contempt of court petition.

Justice Qureshi directed the official to appear before the court on June 30 along with the record and explain how he had been running the day-to-day affairs of the authority after status quo orders issued by the court on June 9.

The contempt of court application was filed by Israr Ahmed Abbasi and Fareeha Iftikhar, who are the private members of Pemra. The petitioners contended that the acting chairman was still functioning despite the court orders.

Mr Abbasi said the acting chairman had been flouting the court orders. However, Mr Rathor’s counsel asked the petitioner to explain what order of the court had been flouted by his client.

At this, the court directed the acting Pemra chief to appear before the court along with the record and adjourned the hearing. The bench also adjourned all other Pemra-related cases till June 30.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2014