ISLAMABAD, 7 June 2007 — A decree by President Pervez Musharraf placing new curbs on the electronic media amid a growing political crisis has been challenged in the Supreme Court, reports said yesterday.
Senior lawyer Zafarullah Khan submitted a petition to the Supreme Court saying the people of Pakistan were “stunned” by the measures governing television, radio and the Internet.
“The Supreme Court has received a petition from Zafarullah Khan,” a court official told AFP on condition of anonymity. “It will be decided whether to take it up or send it back in due course.” Musharraf granted the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) extra powers on Monday after criticizing coverage of the suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry on March 9.
The regulator can now seal the premises or confiscate the equipment of television and radio channels, and suspend the licenses of offenders. The decree also sharply increases the fine for violation of rules.
The rules came into force as three private television stations said the government had blocked their transmissions.
Chaudhry has become the rallying point for a series of protests against Musharraf’s military rule as opposition parties join forces with lawyers and rights groups.
They turned violent in Karachi on May 12 with the deaths of more than 40 people in clashes between pro- and anti-government supporters.
Journalists chanted slogans in Parliament and scuffled with an official yesterday during a protest against curbs on the media.
National Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain called a half-hour adjournment of the session, which was meant to discuss the upcoming national budget, an AFP reporter witnessed.
The incident happened after dozens of reporters walked out of the parliamentary press gallery in protest at the decree giving extra powers to the body that regulates television and radio stations.
The journalists later returned to the gallery, where some of them roughed up a government official. They then chanted: “We want freedom, we want justice.” Opposition Islamist MPs also shouted slogans.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz earlier yesterday ordered the immediate withdrawal of a police complaint against 200 journalists who protested the curbs in Islamabad on Monday, an official statement said.
Case Against Chaudhry Constitutional
Government’s attorney Sharifuddin Pirzada told the Supreme Court yesterday the reference against Chaudhry was not unconstitutional because President Musharraf had referred it to the Supreme Judicial Council on the advice of the prime minister.
One of the judges, Justice Javed Butter, asked Pirzada what would have been the status of the reference if it was sent directly by the prime minister to the panel. “That would have been an unconstitutional reference,” replied Pirzada.
Chaudhry’s lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan had earlier told the court that President Musharraf had sent the reference without the prime minister’s consent.
