A constitutional petition has been filed in the Lahore High Court (LHC) against government’s policy of not telecasting the speech of the opposition leader during the National Assembly’s (NA) session on May 9. The petition filed by lawyer Waqar Ahmed Chaudhry submitted that opposition leader Chaudhry Nisar Ahmed addressed the NA session on May 9 but it was not aired by PTV.
The PTV managing director (MD) and the information secretary were made respondents to the petition. The petitioner pleaded that barring the speech of the NA members, especially the opposition leader in the NA, from being aired by PTV was a violation of the constitution. He said under Article 19 A off the Constitution, access to information was the fundamental right of people. He said PTV management and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting violated the constitution by blocking Nisar’s speech from being telecasted.
He said the move indicated bias on the part of the federal government and the PTV management regarding free flow of information and building a balanced public opinion, which was guaranteed by the constitution. He said the impartial role of media in building ideological basis and public opinion was of utmost importance and blocking the flow of information on national issues was denial of the fundamental rights of the citizens.
The petitioner pleaded with the court to order the PTV MD and the information secretary to telecast the proceedings of the NA sessions with impartiality and neutrality considering it the basic right of the citizens to have access to information.
