ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's higher judiciary has declared the power of the chairman of the country's media regulatory body to suspend the licenses of television channels as "illegal," reported the local media on Friday.
The judgement was announced by a divisional bench of the Sindh High Court in a petition against the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA).
"We declare that the powers of PEMRA under section 30 PEMRA could not be delegated to Chairman or any other official of PEMRA by dint of section 13 PEMRA ordinance for suspension of broadcast media licences without framing of rules," the Express Tribune newspaper quoted the court ruling.
It added that the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors expressed its reservations in March about a PEMRA directive wherein the authority prohibited news channels from broadcasting analyses or opinions pertaining to the working of the National Accountability Bureau, calling it a “transgression of the canons of press freedom and free speech.”
Pakistan’s media community has frequently accused PEMRA of stifling voices that challenge the government or question various state policies, though the media regulator denies the allegation.
