LAHORE: Permit system for the use of loudspeakers has been withdrawn, the Provincial Law Minister, Mr Ghulam Nabi Memon, announced here today [March 2]. In an interview at the Lahore railway station he said the West Pakistan Loudspeakers Ordinance had been withdrawn and a new one issued to regulate and control and prohibit its use in certain localities.

Under the new ordinance no permit from the Deputy Commissioner is necessary, but certain restrictions “in the interest of public peace and calm” have been maintained. According to the limitations under the new Ordinance, the Minister said, “no person shall use or cause to be used a loudspeaker or amplifier in a public place in such a manner that it caused nuisance to persons in the locality”.

They would not be used in the proximity of a place of worship during prayer time, nor would they be used in the proximity of hospitals at any time, an educational institution during working hours, at a volume or in a manner whereby the working of the institution was disturbed. The loudspeakers, he said, would also not be used in a mosque, church or temple in a manner or at a volume wherefrom the sound should be heard outside the immediate precincts of such a place. Mr Memon said: “Neither will the loudspeakers or amplifiers be used in any public place for voicing of sectarian or other utterances of a controversial nature likely to lead to public disorder if such utterances can be heard outside the immediate limits of the place.”

Published in Dawn March 3rd , 2015

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