A full bench of the Lahore High Court here on Friday restrained Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) from airing an advertisement that contains a purported conversation between Shahbaz Sharif and former Justice Malik Muhammad Qayyum on TV channels. The court also issued notice to PPPP besides summoning a responsible officer of the Pemra on May 04 (today).
The full bench passed this order in response to a petition filed by former chief minister Shahbaz Sharif through Muhammad Shoaib Rashid who argued that his client was contesting elections for NA-129, PP-159, PP-161 of Lahore and PP-247 of Rajanpur. He said the PPPP had started a "defamatory" advertising campaign in the electronic media against the petitioner by using a false and fabricated telephonic conversion between Shahbaz Sharif and former Justice Malik Qayyum. He submitted that the petitioner had moved the application before the ECP asking it to take notice against the PPPP, but it did not take any action so far.
Under sections 16 and 17 of the code of conduct, all political parties are required to refrain from deliberate dissemination of false and malicious information about other political parties and leaders, the counsel contended. He said the paid content-PPP was an attempt to create adverse image of the petitioner among people at large.