The Islamabad High Court was moved on Monday to halt defamatory attacks against the judiciary by a few “corrupt” individuals through the media.
The writ branch of the IHC accepted the petition for regular hearing and fixed the matter for today (Tuesday).
Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui will be hearing the case. Petitioner Nadeem Ahmad through his lawyer Barrister Akram Sheikh requested the the court to direct Pakistan Electronic Media Regularity Authority (PEMRA) to immediately issue a written direction to all national news broadcasters that they must not broadcast any interview or press conference that contained any defamatory material or statements against judges of superior courts.
The petitioner also pleaded that PEMRA be directed to suspend the licence of any national news broadcaster that aired defamatory interviews against the judiciary.
Making the Ministry of Information, PEMRA, Islamabad IGP and IGPs of Punjab, Balochistan, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa respondents, the petitioner pleaded that the Ministry of Information be directed to restrain newspapers from publishing contents of any such press conference or interview that may contain defamatory statements or allegations against any member of the superior judiciary.
Plaintiff Nadeem Ahmad also sought court directive to IGPs for registration of cases under Section 499 of Pakistan Penal Code against any person, who instead of following the prescribed mechanism laid down in the constitution, committed the offence of defamation against the chief justice of Pakistan.
The petitioner argued that he believed the judges of Supreme Court and high courts were not above the law and just like any other ordinary citizen of Pakistan, were fully accountable under Article 5. However, the honourable judges, just like ordinary citizens of Pakistan, were entitled to be protected from defamation.
He said since last week, a new round of rumours had been unleashed that a new attack against the chief justice of Pakistan through another live press conference would be launched and that this time, the attack would be so nasty that it would leave the chief justice of Pakistan with no choice except to resign.
This was followed by on-air predictions of two senior journalists that “a lot more is going to be unleashed against the chief justice of Pakistan within days”. Subsequently, another senior journalist had written two stories warning of an imminent defamatory attack against the chief justice within the next few days, the petitioner pleaded.