ISLAMABAD: The capital territory police on Tuesday registered a case against Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Fazl) Senator Hafiz Hamdullah, who allegedly misbehaved with rights activist Marvi Sirmed during a TV talk show a few days back.

The case was registered against Hafiz Hamdullah under Section 394, 506 at Kohsar police station over charges of threatening and misbehaving with a woman.

Police had delayed the filing of the case due to their failure to obtain footage of the show they wanted to watch before registering the report. But finally, after watching the footage of the said show, the case was registered.

According to the standard operating procedure (SOP), the Senate chairman had been informed about the incident, police claims.

Sirmed alleged that police were not cooperating with her and said that she had decided to approach a court to seek registration of her FIR.

The JUI-F senator has reportedly used abusive language against Sirmed during a television show last week, thus triggering uproar on social media.

The show aired on private television channel NewsOne was debating recent honour killings in Pakistan when JUI-F Senator Hafiz Hamdullah got angry over Sirmed for what he believed was her support for the comments of Barrister Masroor, a panelist in the programme, over a lack of reaction from the Council Of Islamic Ideology on these killings.

Hamdullah was of the view that Barrister Masroor should not have used the words 'pee k soey hue hain' (sleeping after getting intoxicated) for the CII chairman and his fellow JUI-F member Maulana Sherani.

"I won't allow you to speak if you are supporting his words," Hamdullah said to Sirmed.

The argument between Hamdullah and Sirmed resulted in an exchange of hot words between the rights activist and the lawmaker.

The questionable language was omitted from the transmission. However, Sirmed in her Facebook post claimed that Hamdullah began verbally abusing her with the worst possible expletives and tried to physically attack her as well.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) has sent a notice to NewsOne for airing a heated verbal exchange – including censored words/phrases – between Hafiz Hamdullah and Marvi Sirmed on June 10.

The body called for, "an explanation defending the decision to air the exchange," by June 17, or the news organisation could face a fine of Rs one million or cancellation of the talk show.

The notice, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, accuses the talk show host of “not exercising control over the guests”.

“The threats and insults were deliberately allowed to escalate to the point that Hafiz Hamdullah may have physically attacked Marvi Sirmed had another guest not intervened,” said Pemra in its notice.

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