Media accountability: Apex court bars acting PEMRA chief from office

Dr Abdul Jabbar has been serving as the media regulatory body’s acting chairman for a year and a half.

ISLAMABAD:

A ruling by the Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday barring Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority’s (Pemra) acting chairman Dr Abdul Jabbar from holding office has left the authority in a state of limbo.

Heading a two-member bench, Justice Jawwad S Khawaja stated that the acting Pemra chairman could not continue to perform his duties as the chairman or acting head of the authority from Thursday (yesterday).

The bench was hearing a petition filed by anchorpersons Hamid Mir, Absar Alam and a reporter of The Express Tribune, Asad Kharal, seeking the formation of a judicial commission for media accountability and misuse of secret funds by as many as 27 ministries, including the information ministry.

According to the petition, these institutions have allegedly used an amount of Rs5 billion under the head of secret funds to manipulate the media.

During the hearing, Justice Khawaja observed that a new chairman of the media watchdog had not been appointed for a year and a half. He added that Dr Jabbar was installed as the acting chairman for an interim period till a new chairman was appointed but has been passing orders in abundance and therefore, should be barred from heading the authority.

Furthermore, The Express Tribune correspondent Asad Kharal informed the court that he wanted to share important information regarding the misuse of taxpayers’ money by various ministries. The court asked Kharal to submit the application within a week.

Earlier on Wednesday, the court had directed the concerned ministries and information ministry’s counsel to submit their replies regarding the misuse of secret funds; however these ministries did not submit a reply.

The bench adjourned the hearing for one week.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 21^st, 2012.