LAHORE: A judge of the Lahore High Court (LHC) has requested the chief justice to constitute a larger bench to decide several pending petitions against anti-judiciary speeches of ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and other leaders of the PML-N.

Hearing a petition on Thursday, Justice Syed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi had summoned the secretary of Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) along with a reply within seven days.

However, the judge in his written order released on Friday referred the matter to the chief justice with a request to constitute a larger bench on it. “While dictating the order the court was apprised that some petitions on similar subject are pending adjudication before other benches. As the matter pertains to a serious issue, which is of public importance, therefore, the same is referred to the chief justice for constitution of larger bench to avoid conflicting judgements,” said Justice Naqvi in his written order.

A citizen, Munir Ahmad, had filed the petition through Advocate Azhar Siddique saying the PML-N leadership had been making derogatory speeches against judges of the Supreme Court since the verdict of Mr Sharif’s disqualification in Panama Papers case.

He said Pemra had been willfully allowing broadcast of “hate speeches, defamatory and contemptuous remarks” on television channels as it took no action to enforce its code of conduct and rules.

He stated that Pemra had failed to act as an independent regulator and had rather become a subordinate body of the government. Pemra officials needed to realise that they were not working on the PML-N’s payroll and had to protect the citizens of Pakistan and the institutions in every regard.

He asked the court to order Pemra to restrain media houses from airing anything against the laws and offensive to state institutions.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2018