IHC rejects plea to withdraw case against TV anchor

ISLAMABAD: An Islamabad High Court (IHC) bench here on Wednesday rejected an application to withdraw a petition that had been filed seeking lifetime ban on anchorperson Dr Amir Liaquat Hussain for using electronic and social media for his hate speeches, justifying violence and public disorder.

The petition was filed by a citizen Muhammad Abbas through his counsel Shoaib Razzaq, advocate. During Wednesday’s proceedings, legal counsel for the petitioner contended that he wanted to withdraw this petition. However, Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui in the bench rejected his application and said that the court would decide this matter on merit.

Justice Siddiqui after inquiring from the petitioner about the contents of his petition, remarked that the petitioner not even knew what he had written in this petition. “First, ISI uses a few persons for filing of such petitions and after settlement of certain issues, they apply for withdrawal of the petitions. What does ISI really want to do?” Justice Siddiqui asked.

“These people use courts to settle their scores and when it is settled, they come for withdrawal of the petitions,” he remarked. It is to mention here that Justice Siddiqui on December 12, 2017 while hearing into the petition, through an interim order banned the anchor from any kind of television appearance.

Today Justice Siddiqui while keeping interim order intact, directed federation and the anchor to submit reply within fortnight. Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) submitted its reply here on Wednesday.

The petitioner contended that the TV anchor was a hypocrite and misusing religion while Pemra and PTA are not taking any action against him that they should. Petitioner cited federation of Pakistan through Ministry of Information, Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) chairman, Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) chairman and the anchor as respondents.

Petitioner said that the anchor has been appearing on television since 2006. Over a decade he conducted several shows including morning shows, talk shows, game shows and religious programmes on different television channels.