Supreme Court Thursday issued notices to two Pakistan People's Party (PPP) stalwarts to submit replies, substantiating their statements in which they have accused certain journalists of a private TV channel as agents of India, Israel and Russia.
A three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Tariq Pervez and Justice Ghulam Rabbani issued notices to Raja Riaz, a senior provincial minister and Uzma Bukhari an MPA of ruling PPP through Speaker Punjab Assembly. A separate notice was also issued to federal government through secretary information ministry and Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra).
Raja Riaz, a senior provincial minister and Uzma Bukhari an MPA of ruling PPP had accused a private TV channel and some of its journalists as agents of Israel, India and Russia, during a session of Punjab Assembly last week.
Meanwhile, with the consent of both the parties, the court nominated Javed Jabbar - a former caretaker information minister as mediator to monitor allocation of frequency to various private TV channels under Pemra rules and regulations. The bench asked the respondents to submit their replies to the points raised by Muhammad Akram Sheikh, lawyer for private TV channels (Geo, ARY), in which the lawyers contended that the duo (Riaz, Uzma) had accused Geo as shareholder of an Indian company.
The court noted that it would issue notices first to the government and the individuals to file their replies on the issue. If they can stand by their claims, the court may direct the agencies to hold a thorough probe into the matter and submit report. Chief Justice asked Muhammad Ibrahim Satti, counsel for Pemra-a government body responsible for regulating the broadcast media, to get a notification issued in this regard.
Meanwhile, Akram Sheikh (advocate) told the court that Dr Shahid Masood, an anchorman, wanted to tell the court that he was receiving life threats from certain quarters. However, the court declined to hear the anchorman, saying that he should approach the right forum to lodge his complaint.
Khalid Anwar, counsel for cable operators said the case was initiated on disruption and discontinuation of the two private TV channels' transmissions, while here it is being dragged to another side, as the channels' counsel was seeking a judicial verdict on another issue, which had no concern with the original issue. He said the allegations seemed to be odd, thus did not need serious consideration. Pemra's counsel told the court that he had written letters to both the TV channels to nominate their mediators following previous directions of the court but they didn't respond.
He said they also approached the government, which made chairmen of Pemra Council of Complaints in all the provinces, including federal capital as mediators and also issued notification in this regard.