CJP advised Pemra to complete its job after bringing all stake holders to the table.   — File Photo

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Monday said that a lot needed to be done to arrive at a definition of vulgarity, DawnNews reported.

A three judge bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar was hearing a petition filed by Justice (retd) Wajihuddin and former Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed against obscenity aired on TV channels.

In his remarks, the chief justice said had members of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) done their job right, obscenity could have been controlled.

He said he did not want anyone to say that restrictions were imposed on broadcast material without hearing the points-of-view of concerned parties.

The chief justice advised the Pemra to assemble together all the stakeholders and reach a stance on the matter.

Moreover, Justice Khawaja remarked that 10 years had passed and Pemra had yet to arrive at a conclusive definition of vulgarity. Every individual had their own interpretation of vulgarity and obscenity, he added.

Previously, the Supreme Court had expressed its surprise when the Pemra had stated that the government had neither a policy to monitor TV programmes, especially of foreign channels, nor did it have a clear definition of obscenity.

Opinion

Editorial

Ties with Tehran
Updated 24 Apr, 2024

Ties with Tehran

Tomorrow, if ties between Washington and Beijing nosedive, and the US asks Pakistan to reconsider CPEC, will we comply?
Working together
24 Apr, 2024

Working together

PAKISTAN’S democracy seems adrift, and no one understands this better than our politicians. The system has gone...
Farmers’ anxiety
24 Apr, 2024

Farmers’ anxiety

WHEAT prices in Punjab have plummeted far below the minimum support price owing to a bumper harvest, reckless...
By-election trends
Updated 23 Apr, 2024

By-election trends

Unless the culture of violence and rigging is rooted out, the credibility of the electoral process in Pakistan will continue to remain under a cloud.
Privatising PIA
23 Apr, 2024

Privatising PIA

FINANCE Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb’s reaffirmation that the process of disinvestment of the loss-making national...
Suffering in captivity
23 Apr, 2024

Suffering in captivity

YET another animal — a lioness — is critically ill at the Karachi Zoo. The feline, emaciated and barely able to...