Rao Tehsin moves IHC for not being notified as Radio Pakistan DG

ISLAMABAD: The former Principle Information Officer (PIO) Rao Tehsin has moved Islamabad High Court (IHC) over not being notified as Radio Pakistan DG despite a notification, asking criminal proceedings against those who provided the incorrect statement.

Former PIO on Monday, through his counsel, filed a petition in the IHC while making secretary information, secretary establishment, and secretary to the prime minister as respondents.

In his petition, he said the counsel of establishment division in writ petition no 830/2018 had informed IHC that the division had issued the notification of his appointment as Radio Pakistan DG which the court then disposed-off.

“[Rao Tehsin] has not been appointed as Radio Pakistan DG despite the statement of the respondents before the court,” reads the petition.

He further stated it was mistakenly typed in the order that the petitioner’s counsel has also appraised the court of the petitioner’s appointment as Radio Pakistan DG.

“The article 204 (2) of the Constitution empowers the high court to punish any person who disobeys any of its order or otherwise does anything which tends to prejudice the determination of a matter pending before it hence it is imperative upon this honorable court to inflict exemplary punishment upon the respondent so as to fortify its own authority and restore reverence of its orders in the eyes of the public in general and executive in particular,” he said.

Tehsin was removed from his position as the Principal Information Officer (PIO) last year in June in the wake of an inquiry into the publication of a news report carried by Dawn newspaper on a meeting between civilian and military leaders — widely known as the Dawn Leaks.

He had filed a number of petitions in IHC and Supreme Court regarding the inquiry report upon which he had been made OSD but the court rejected his appeal by giving the order that the inquiry report is confidential and cannot be made public.