Voicing concern: SHC asked to stop Altaf’s speeches

HYDERABAD: The live telecast of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain's speeches has been challenged in the Sindh High Court Hyderabad circuit bench. The speeches, according to the petitioner, Qamar Bhatti, incite ethnic tensions among the people of Sindh. Justices Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Shaukat Memon took up the petition almost six months after it was filed in October 2014. It issued notices on Tuesday to the respondents, including the chairperson of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra), interior and foreign secretaries and the Sindh chief secretary to submit replies on May 5. Bhatti maintained that Altaf was a citizen of the UK who allegedly provokes ethnic friction in the province and demands division of Sindh on ethnic basis. He prayed the court to order Pemra to bar television channels and newspapers from telecasting and publishing his speeches and also the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited to block his telephonic speeches.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 8^th, 2015.