SHC issues notice to private TV channel

KARACHI: Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday issued notice to Labbaik TV management on the federal government’s request seeking exclusion of Axact Chief Executive Officer Shoaib Ahmed Sheikh and three others from the list of the the TV channel’s directors and shareholders.
Notices were issued after the federal government’s requested the court to vacate its stay order granted against the Interior Ministry’s decision to exclude Shoaib Sheikh, his wife Ayesha Sheikh, Waqas Atiq and Sarwar Bashir from the list of directors and shareholders of the TV channel.
The federal government stated that the management of Labbaik TV had earlier made Axact’s CEO Shoaib Sheikh, Waqas Atiq, Ayesha and Sarwar Bashir as its directors and shareholders. Later, the Interior Ministry excluded the names of the four directors from the list of the Labbaik TV’s shareholders citing their ‘non-clearance of security’ as reason.
It was submitted that the Labbaik TV’s management then challenged the Interior Ministry’s decision in the SHC, which on July 8, 2013, granted a stay against exclusion of these four persons from the list of Labbaik directors and shareholders.
The federal law officer argued that the Supreme Court had already raised questions regarding transparency in the matter of the Axcat. Therefore, he pleaded to the high court to vacate its stay against the interior ministry’s decision of excluding the four persons from the list of Labbaik TV’s directors and shareholders.SHC’s division bench, headed by Chief Justice Faisal Arab, after hearing initial arguments issued notices to the Labbaik TV’s management to file its comments by June 5.