ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) while hearing a petition filed against the upcoming edition of Miss Veet Pakistan beauty pageant show on a private television channel asked the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) on Tuesday to provide the record of last year’s show.

IHC Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui directed Pemra to submit the recording in a compact disc (CD) by September 11. The court would announce an order on maintainability of the petition after reviewing the programme.

The same judge has recently issued an order on a petition seeking removal of blasphemous contents from the social networking websites.

The judge proposed steps to avoid exploitation of blasphemy law.

Justice Siddiqui after hearing preliminary arguments of advocate Tariq Asad, president Shuhda Foundation of Lal Masjid, remarked that he would pass an appropriate order after examining the available record.

The petitioner adopted before the court that such programmes are against the spirit of Islam.

The petitioner has also requested the court to impose a ban on the exhibition of identical TV shows like Pakistan Idol, Voice of Pakistan and Turkish films dubbed in Urdu on Geo News, Capital News, Geo Kahani TV channels and the advertisement trailers of obscene Indian films on news channels.

He further requested the court to issue direction to Pemra to stop the exhibition of programmes of competition of singing, dancing, fashion show and obscene advertisement being in violation of Articles 2-A, 14, 19 and 20 of the Constitution.

Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2017