KARACHI, March 18: The Sindh High Court allowed the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) on Thursday to process the applications received by it for satellite television stations subject to the outcome of a writ petition moved by the Pakistan Herald Publications Limited.

The PHPL has challenged the ineligibility of print media owners from obtaining a cable TV station licence as spelt out by Rule 17 of the Pemra Rules, 2002, and the requirement of a 'cross-media affidavit' by applicants affirming on oath that they do not own a newspaper or a journal in Pakistan.

The rule and the requirement, the petitioner said, were violative of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution, the provisions of the parent Pemra Ordinance of 2002 and the federal government's own policy declaration of February 20, 2003, withdrawing the bar on the print media.

It was also contrary to the worldwide trend to disseminate news through internet and terrestrial and non-terrestrial cable and beaming systems simultaneously.

Pemra had invited applications for licences in January and February 28 was fixed as the cut-off date. The petitioner, PHPL, filled out the application form without submitting the cross- media affidavit and approached the court against the condition.

It also sought interim relief by way of a restraint order to Pemra not to proceed with the grant of licences pending the court proceedings. "Serious prejudice is likely to be caused to the petitioner as the Pemra has a limited bandwidth to allocate to its licencees," Advocates Muneer A. Malik and Ziaul Haq Makhdoom submitted on behalf of the petitioner.

Summing up the contentions raised by the petitioner's counsel, a division bench comprising Justices Anwar Zaheer Jamali and S. Ali Aslam Jafri passed an ad interim order on March 12 restraining Pemra from "finalizing the process of awarding the TV broadcasting licences".

Notice in the stay application was issued for March 18. The main petition was also fixed for hearing the same day and Pemra and the respondent information ministry were again asked to file their para-wise comments on it.

No comments were filed on Thursday but Deputy Attorney- General Nadeem Azhar Siddiqui submitted a short statement on behalf of Pemra that a licence would be kept in reserve for grant to the petitioner PHPL should its petition succeed.

The statement said: "Without prejudice to our (Pemra's) right to contest the petition on merits, it is respectfully submitted that the authority may be permitted to process the already received applications for issuance of satellite TV station licences.

The application of the petitioner will be processed in accordance with the decision of this honourable court, for which the respondent (Pemra) will keep the slot available as there is no technical limitation on the number of licences to be issued." The statement was signed by the Pemra general manager for Sindh, Mr Waseem Ahmed.

The bench disposed of the PHPL stay plea in terms of the Pemra statement and adjourned further proceedings to April 14, on which date the respondents were asked to submit their detailed reply to the averments made in the petition.