KARACHI, July 4: The Sindh High Court on Wednesday suspended the operation of a termination notice served by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority on a television channel.

According to the Pemra notice of June 27, the Royal TV owned by M/s Royal Media Network, was airing illegal transmissions without obtaining a licence under the Pemra Ordinance.

It was granted ‘landing rights’ only for 100 days, on the expiry of which no extension was sought. The channel was asked to cease its operations on the pain of punitive action under the ordinance.

The notice was challenged by the channel through Advocate Rasheed A. Razvi, who said the permission for ‘landing rights’ expired on February 6, following which they should either have been confirmed or terminated by Pemra.

Since the channel continued its transmissions unhindered after that date, the ‘landing rights’ should be deemed to have been confirmed.

The lawyer said the real reason behind the cancellation or termination of rights was the detailed spot coverage of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry’s visit to Multan.

Issuing a notice to the authority for July 11, a division bench consisting of Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Maqbool Baqar, directed it not to act on the notice till that date.