LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday issued notices to the federal government and the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) on a petition challenging appearance of former finance minister Ishaq Dar in the media.

       Advocate Azhar Siddique filed the petition on behalf of a citizen, pleading that Dar had been declared a proclaimed offender by different courts for not joining proceedings in different corruption cases filed against him. He said Dar had been living in self-exile in London and the law did not allow a fugitive to appear on television screens.

       Siddique said Pemra had failed to implement its laws on political consideration and took no action against the news channels for inviting a proclaimed offender in their programmes and having his opinion on the economy of the country.

       He asked the court to order Pemra to restrain the media from giving airtime to a fugitive of law.

       Justice Shahid Waheed heard the initial arguments and sought replies from the respondents within a week.

       CONTEMPT: A petition has been filed in the Lahore High Court, seeking contempt proceedings against dissident MNA of PTI Raja Riaz allegedly for uploading objectionable material about the superior court judges.

       Munir Ahmad, a citizen, filed the petition through Advocate Azhar Siddique, pleading that the MNA used contemptuous language in his social media posts against the judges. He said the act of the MNA was liable to be punished under the contempt of court.

       Published in Dawn,May 24th, 2022