IHC disapproves on-air discussion of sub judice cases

Bench calls for educating the people about laws

ISLAMABAD: Islamabad High Court (IHC) Chief Justice Athar Minallah Monday said that the in process cases should not be discussed during TV talk shows and observed that the bench would pass a comprehensive judgment on the matter.

The chief justice asked the anchors to assist the bench on the subject so that contempt of courts on TV programmes could be avoided in future.

IHC’s bench was conducting a hearing on a contempt of court case against several TV talks show hosts. Anchors Hamid Mir, Abdul Malik, Kashif Abbasi and Sami Ibrahim appeared before the court.

During the course of proceedings, Hamid Mir argued whether the code of conduct of Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) was not enough for TV channels to which the bench observed that it was not sufficient as the contempt of court still continued.

The IHC chief justice said that on-air remarks should not be made on cases which were in process. He said that anchor Sami Ibrahim had even used the word ‘deal’ in his programme.

The bench remarked that problems of a common man were not discussed on media and called for educating the public about laws. The court adjourned hearing of the case till December 18.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 19^th, 2019.