The meeting, held in continuation of a similar event on May 20, formed a three-member committee to ensure implementation of the private members decisions on Geo. It will consist of Israr Abbasi, Fareeha Iftikhar and Shama Parveen.The meeting was declared illegal and invalid by the authority in its reaction late on Wednesday night.
The authority issued a statement following the May 28 meeting to clarify that the meeting called by the private members in isolation had no legal consequence. The ex-officio members pointed out in the statement that a consensual Pemra meeting was to be held on May 27 that was cancelled on the orders of the Islamabad High Court.
Moreover, all the members were informed in writing accordingly. It was decided by majority of the members that the next meeting would be convened after the decision/ further orders by the court. Therefore, the majority members felt that Wednesday’s meeting of some private members was in defiance of the court orders and thus the majority members did not attend it.
The previous meeting of private members, declared illegal by Pemra, had recommended revocation of the licences of Geo News, Geo Entertainment and Geo Tez and shutting down of their offices. Talking to media persons after the meeting, the private members — Israr Abbasi, Fareeha Iftikhar and Mian Shams — defended the meeting.
Replying to questions, Abbasi said the issue of apology by Geo and the Jang Group would be taken up in the authority’s next meeting on June 17. He said one official member had asked them to wait for the court order instead of holding a meeting to which they did not agree and held the meeting on the complaint of the Ministry of Defence against Geo.
Asked what the status of a meeting that was not attended by all the government members was, Abbasi contended that a forum participated by four, five or six members was legal and its decision was that of the authority.
About the cancellation of May 27 meeting, he said that it was cancelled after the court orders and their today’s meeting was according to the rules. Asked if the meeting was legal, then why the government members had moved the Islamabad High Court and also did not attend the today’s meeting, he said it was mentioned in Section 5 that if the government issued any policy or direction, it would be binding on the authority.
He added, therefore, if the government had formulated a policy and made up its mind not to take any action, then it should intimate the Pemra in writing that the matter was over.Abbasi said this game of cat and mouse should not be played.
He charged that the government, particularly the Ministry of Information, was under pressure and the authority’s employees were also being intimidated.Abbasi said they had asked the Council of Complaints, Islamabad, to give its opinion on the matter and the Sindh’s Council of Complaints’ recommendations would also be discussed during the next meeting.
Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Dr Nazir Saeed and six other members initially had discussions with private members but after a deadlock, they stayed away from it. Ex-officio members, according to sources, contended that the meeting should be held after four weeks.
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