The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday issued notices to respondents on a 2015 petition seeking a ban on the broadcast of images and speeches of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) founder Altaf Hussain across all electronic and print media.

In early 2015, a petition filed by Advocate Aftab Virk, Abdullah Malik and others called for a lifetime ban on the live telecast of Hussain’s speeches, citing his “anti-army” remarks. Subsequently, a three-member bench of the LHC had ordered the ban on August 31, 2015 and its compliance.

A three-judge LHC bench headed by Chief Justice Aalia Neelum and including Justices Farooq Haider and Tariq Nadeem took up the plea today.

The court summoned Attorney General for Pakistan Mansoor Usman Awan and the Punjab advocate general on the next hearing, seeking their assistance in the case.

It also ordered that the MQM founder’s lawyer be summoned on that hearing. The petitioners were also given time till the next hearing to appoint their lawyers.

At one point during the hearing, Malik said “peace had been established in Karachi” after the LHC ordered the ban in 2015.

On this, Justice Neelum observed: “This is an important matter for our country’s peace, which is why we have issued notices to all respondents and petitioners.”

Case history

Justice Haider and Nadeem were also part of a three-judge full bench that was supposed to hear the petitions in October 2024. However, Justice Ali Zia Bajwa recused himself from hearing the pleas due to personal reasons.

As a result, the bench had referred the matter to Chief Justice Neelum with a request to fix the petitions before any other appropriate bench.

Subsequently, the case was taken up today by a bench headed by the chief justice herself along with the two other judges.

In 2023, the Sindh High Court had dismissed two separate petitions within as many months that had sought the removal of the ban on Hussain’s media coverage.

A month after the ban had been ordered, Hussain had challenged it in the Supreme Court, describing the move as neither reasonable nor balanced.