SHC issues notices to DAG on Bol TV petition

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) Thursday issued a notice to the deputy attorney general on a petition of Labaik Private Limited against the policy advice of the Ministry of Information to the Pemra to ensure stoppage of Bol TV transmission.
Petitioner Labaik Private Limited, through its director Ayesha Shoaib Sheikh, had impugned the policy advice of the Ministry of Information to Pemra regarding stoppage of Bol TV and Bol Entertainment through any network on the ground that letting these channels go on air may seriously hamper fair and transparent investigation of FIA into Axact’s fake degree scam.
The petition said the purported policy advice was part of a grand scheme by the official respondents to destroy the TV channels of the petitioner and the entire action was being conducted upon the dictation of competitors who were in league with the government machinery.
The petitioner submitted that the impugned policy carried no legal sanctity and was not binding on the Pemra.It was submitted that the impugned policy was not sustainable in the eye of the law, as it was based upon mere allegations raised against Axact which were yet to be proven in the court of the law.
The court was prayed to declare the policy advice to the Pemra discriminatory and violative of fundamental rights and Section 5 of Pemra Ordinance.The court was requested to restrain the respondent from interfering into the transmission of Bol TV and Bol Entertainment and forcing the cable operators into blocking the Bol TV transmission.The division bench, headed by Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, after preliminary hearing of the petition issued notice to the deputy attorney general for Friday (today).