KARACHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the owner of Bol TV to appear in person on Wednesday over non-payment of salaries to his employees.

A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar was hearing a suo motu case about non-payment of salaries to the employees of different media outlets at the Supreme Court’s Karachi registry.

The court had issued a directive last month to Shoaib Shaikh — the owner of Bol TV — to deposit Rs100 million within 10 days so that salaries could be paid to the channel’s employees, who had not been paid for months.

On Tuesday, some officials of the channel turned up and said they could not arrange the amount and submitted some property documents.

The chief justice expressed resentment over Mr Shaikh’s failure to comply with the court order and warned that a ban could be imposed on the channel if the salaries were not paid soon.

When the channel’s officials asked the bench about their pleas regarding ratings and launch of new channels, the chief justice said the court would not entertain any application till the payment of salaries.

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2018