ISLAMABAD: A Pakistan court Tuesday sentenced the owner of the country’s biggest media group to 26 years in prison for broadcasting a show it said was blasphemous.

The verdict against Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman along with Shaishta Wahidi, the host of the show, and two guests — Veena and her husband Asad Bashir Khan Khatak — was announced by an anti-terror court in the city of Gilgit, which is controlled by Pakistan but part of the Kashmir region which India also claims.

But the order is unlikely to be implemented because the Gilgit-Baltistan region is not considered a full-fledged province by Pakistan and verdicts by its courts do not apply to the rest of the country.

The four people convicted were also ordered to pay a fine of 1.3 million rupees ($13,000), sell their properties and surrender their passports, according to a copy of the court order.

“The malicious acts of the proclaimed offenders ignited the sentiments of all the Muslims of the country and hurt the feelings, which cannot be taken lightly and there is need to strictly curb such tendency,” the order said.

No lawyer appeared on behalf of any of the accused. However the court had arranged a state lawyer to defend them.