ISLAMABAD:
Some private members of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory
Authority (Pemra) had a meeting here on Wednesday on the Geo issue that
was termed in defiance of the honourable Islamabad High Court orders by
the authority’s ex-officio members.
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.
