By Iram Salim
Islamabad (Pakdestiny.com) As Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority has banned ARY for 15 days and Mubashir Lucman for indefinite time on the Lahore High Court’s order, Mr Lucman must be thinking — has not he paid too much price to please his client Asim Malik, a human smuggler hiding in London.
As both the Supreme Court and high court are furious over Lucman for taking on Justice Jawad S Khjawaja and Mazahir Ali Naqvi who will come out to rescue him this time, a million dollar question. ARY will be back after 15 days but no one knows how long it will take when Mubashir be back.
Both Sharif brothers must be very much relieved after this development as ARY and Mubashir had been bringing forth a number of scandals of the government. Who will bring forth the PML-N’s scandals now as most private TV channels are well managed by the government?
Its also good time for Geo too to get back some of its space it had conceded to ARY.
BAN: PEMRA on Monday suspended the license of ARY News for 15 days, ARY News reported.
According to details, PEMRA authority held a meeting on Monday with an intention to teach a lesson to ARY News, for bringing facts before the people. The meeting decided to suspend the license of ARY News for 15 days, in which the controversial PEMRA Chief, Pervez Rathore played a key role.
He voted in favor of suspending the largest unbiased news channel of Pakistan.
It is pertinent to note here that the appointment of Pervez Rathore as the Chairman of PEMRA has already been challenged in the court and he is himself a controversial person to head a key institution.
Here the question rises how can a controversial PEMRA Chief endorse such a decision against a prestigious news channel having huge following in the country, while his own appointment rests in the court of law.
Meanwhile, four members of the PEMRA authority opposed the decision saying that the license of any media entity cannot be suspended without listening to its stance on the issue.
They said that the decision is based on malafide intentions.
The members of the PEMRA authority opposing the decision, included Fariha Iftikhar, Israr Abbasi, Mian Shams and Zeba.
Moreover, senior journalists and political figures have strongly criticized the decision and labeled it victimization of a media organization for keeping the masses informed about what is actually going on in the state.