Imran Khan moves LHC against Pemra's ban on broadcast of his speeches.

PTI Chairman Imran Khan on Monday moved the Lahore High Court (LHC) against the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) decision to bar all satellite TV channel from broadcasting his speeches and press talks.

The LHC registrar's office has fixed the plea for hearing and Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan will take it up tomorrow.

On Sunday, the media regulator had slapped a ban on Imran's speeches and press talks with 'immediate effect' after he had lashed out at former army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa for what he called 'protecting incumbent rulers in their alleged corruption cases'. Pemra has also suspended the licence of ARY News for airing the clips of Imran's speech at Zaman Park in bulletin.

Yesterday's directives were the third such ban on the broadcasting and rebroadcasting of Imran's speeches and press talks. The first such restriction was set aside by the Islamabad High Court on Sept 6, 2022 and the other was withdrawn hours after being imposed by the government.

In the petition, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, Imran named Pemra and the authority's director (operations, broadcast media) as respondents.

The plea pointed out that the IHC had set aside a similar prohibition order in the past.

The petition said that Pemra had issued the order 'in excess of the jurisdiction vested in it and without having regard to the constitutional rights guaranteed under Articles 19 and 19-A of the Constitution'. It further contended that the authority was not empowered to issue a blanket prohibition order, which appears to be 'in violation of the principle of proportionality'.

The plea argued that according to Section 8 of the Pemra Ordinance, one-third of the total number of members were required to constitute quorum for meetings. But the meeting which passed the order against Imran comprised only the chairman and three members which made the order 'coram-non-judice'.

It said that Pemra's order was 'illegal, unlawful, more than its jurisdiction, and contrary to the fundamental rights as enshrined under the Constitution' and liable to be set aside.

'The Impugned Order in effect has prohibited all news channels from airing live speeches of Imran based on spreading hate speech and making provocative statements against state institutions and officers. It is submitted that no hate speech or any such statements were made against the state institutions during his speech which entails such penal consequences as notified in the impugned...