The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday issued a contempt of court notice to Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) Acting Chairman Pervez Rathore.
The notice was issued by Justice Noorul Haq Qureshi on a contempt of court application filed by Fareeha Iftikhar and Israr Ahmed Abbasi, two private members of the regulatory authority.
The petition had contended that Rathore was functioning despite the IHC’s June 9 orders.
Abbasi and Iftikhar had challenged the appointment of Rathore as acting chairman of PEMRA and Justice Qureshi on June 9 had ruled that “status quo shall be maintained” until June 17.
Following Friday’s proceedings, the court issued a contempt notice to Rathore and directed the acting PEMRA chairman to personally appear in court and submit a reply on the matter in 10 days’ time.
In the June 9 order, Justice Qureshi had also decided to hold a joint hearing of all petitions filed in the IHC on the PEMRA issue on June 17 when the court would take a decision about Rathore’s appointment as acting chairman of the authority.
A day after his appointment as acting chairman on June 5, Rathore had ordered the suspension of Geo News for 15 days and an imposition of Rs100 million fine for ‘defaming’ the director general of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
