Justice Ijazul Ahsan made these remarks while hearing a petition of the Independent Media Corporation against the closure of Geo News in violation of the SC order. He said the Supreme Court’s order was final and under the Constitution, every individual and institution was bound to adhere to it. The cable operators had no right to block or encrypt any channel. No one could deviate from the apex court’s order and if such a situation cropped up, the court would intervene to correct the situation, he said.

Geo News Lahore Bureau Chief Khawar Naeem Hashmi, Lahore Press Club Secretary Shahbaz Mian, Jang Workers Union President Rukhsana Nazli, Vice President Muhammad Arshad, General Secretary Wasim Babar and a large number of journalists were present in the courtroom.

The Jang Workers Union also moved an application to become a party in the case. However, the judge said the Jang Group had approached the court through a petition and its outcome would benefit its workers as well.

Geo News counsel Behzad Haider and Jam Asif Mehmood told the court that despite the SC order, the cable operators had not restored the Geo News to its old number. They said the cable operators were violating the apex court order and Pakistan Electronic Media Regularity Authority (Pemra) rules, but the authority had taken no action against them. They pointed out that the Geo News was running its transmission but the cable operators were not telecasting it. They said due to the non-airing of the channel on the cable network, it was getting no advertisement. If the Geo News was not restored on the cable network, it was likely that it would be bankrupt that would lead to the expulsion of thousands of its workers.

The counsel said the Sindh High Court had given a precise order to restore the Geo News to its old number and action should be taken against the cable operators declined to abide by the order. However, the Pemra was reluctant to take any action against them.

The court summoned the deputy attorney general on a short notice. DAG Riaz Qadeer appeared before the court and told it that the Pemra had initiated legal action against the cable operators who were not restoring the Geo News to its old number. He said show cause notices had been issued to the violators and they had been summoned on July 11. He requested the court to wait for the outcome of the Pemra meeting with the cable operators.

The Geo counsel said their grievance would not be addressed till the complete restoration of the Geo News transmission to its old number. They said the Pemra had ordered the closure of the Geo News and it was implemented at once. Now the order had been passed for its restoration and the same should also be enforced in letter and spirit with immediate effect.

A cable operators counsel told the court that 117 channels were running their transmission while the cable operators had a capacity to air only 96 channels including the PTV. In such a situation, how could it be determined that a specific channel should be run at a specific number?

At this, the court remarked that the Geo News should be restored to the number at which it was being run on April 19. Under the law, the cable operators had no authority whatsoever to broadcast a channel or block it whimsically. The court would also look into the SC order to determine whether the SC had made it imperative on the cable operators to run a specific channel at a specific number. Had the SC given the cable operators the power to block a channel? The court said and added it would also look into terms and conditions of licenses issued to the cable operators.

The DAG said it would become obvious on July 11 in a meeting with the cable operators whether they had violated the SC order and what punishment be awarded to them in case they were found guilty.

The Geo News counsel again said the Pemra should work strictly in accordance with the law without any fear or favour. The court, however, said let the Pemra hold the meeting with the cable operators and it might result in favour of the Geo News.

Khawar told the court the Geo News was not being seen in 50 per cent areas of Punjab and 80 per cent of Sindh, but the Pemra was sitting idle instead of initiating legal action against the violators. He said his organisation had lost confidence in the Pemra and expected no justice from it. He said the information minister announced that the Geo News had been restored but the ground realty was altogether different as the Pemra took no legal action against the cable operators violating the minister’s order. It was confusing that under whose authority the Pemra was working, he said.

He said workers were worried as they would face ouster and non-payment of salaries as the situation was deteriorating rapidly. The organisation could be shut down if the situation persisted too long. He said the right of freedom of speech was being stifled. He requested the court to take notice of the situation and take steps to safeguard the Geo News from closure. He said the Jang Group had no other forum, expect judiciary, to redress its grievance.

Civil Society representative Abdullah Malik said the Geo News issue was related to human rights as thousands of people were employed in the organisation and its closure would deprive them of their livelihood.

Senior Journalist Amin Hafeez said the court better knew about the modus operandi of the establishment and it should take action against it.The court said it would exercise its judicial power in case of injustice. The judge asked the petitioner to wait till the Pemra decision on July 11.The court adjourned the hearing till July 17 and sought the record of the July 11 meeting.

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Petitioner counsel Saim Hashmi submitted that the respondents M/s World Call telecom, Pemra and Ministry of Information did not comply with the orders of the Pemra and broadcast of the Geo News remained suspended till filing of the petition. He submitted that blocking the transmission of the Geo News was the violation of the Supreme Court and High Court’s orders that restrained the Pemra and cable operators from blocking or interfering in the smooth transmission of the Geo News. The court was prayed to direct the respondents to restore the Geo News transmission at its position as it was on April 19, 2014 and restrain them from blocking or interfering with the transmission of the Geo News. SHC’s division bench headed by Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi after preliminary hearing of the petition issued notices to the deputy attorney general for July 7.

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A two-member bench of the apex court comprising Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Mushir Alam heard the constitutional petition filed by the Independent Media Corporation (IMC) on behalf of Geo Television Network for consolidation of dozens of FIRs lodged against it across the country.

The court also issued notices to all the advocates general of the four provinces directing them to assist it in the instant matter after the Attorney General suggested to the court that being the provincial matter, advocates general of the four provinces should be asked to assist the court in the instant matter.

Appearing on notice, Attorney General Salman Aslam Butt informed the court that the matter pertaining to FIRs lodged across the country against the Geo TV was being under investigation. He, however, said that as the matter related to the provinces where complaints had been lodged against Geo TV, therefore, it would be appropriate that advocates general of the four provinces should be asked to assist the court in this regard.

Meanwhile, the court issued notices to advocates general of the four provinces to appear before the court and assist it in the instant matter and adjourned the hearing for a week.

Earlier, during the course of hearing, the court asked Muhammad Akram Sheikh, the counsel for Geo Television to invoke the jurisdiction of learned high court for being the simple case of criminal jurisdiction.

Muhammad Akram Sheikh, however, contended that it was the matter of high public importance as the country’s popular TV channel had been blocked which is violation of Article 19 of the Constitution. He said that being a case of public importance, the petition was filed under Article 184(3) of the Constitution as billions of people had been deprived of watching the popular TV channel.

He informed the court that over 39 FIRs had been lodged against Geo Television in the four provinces. He requested the court to consolidate all these FIRs for eventual quashing of proceedings on them.

He said that Article 19 ensures freedom of speech and expression while Article 10-A gives the right of fair trial to his client. He pleaded that the instant case fell in the jurisdiction of Article 184(3) of the Constitution for being public importance.

In its petition, the Independent Media Corporation had prayed to the apex court to order the law enforcement and investigation agencies and lower courts all over the country to submit copies of all the criminal complaints, FIRs and petitions filed under Section 22A that contained allegations of blasphemy regarding the show.

It had further requested to issue directives for consolidation of all FIRs that might have been registered in various parts of the country and to restrain the law enforcing and investigating agencies from registering any new case, but to forward all pending and new FIRs containing allegations of blasphemy before the Supreme Court for eventual quashing of proceedings on them.

The petitioner had also requested to order the relevant law-enforcing agencies in all the provinces to take required steps for protection of the petitioners, management and staff of the Geo, Jang Group, along with their offices all over the country.

Federal government through secretary interior, chief secretaries of the four provincial governments and chief commissioner Islamabad have been made as respondents in the instant petition.

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Legal counsel for IMC, Faisal Iqbal advocate appeared before the court and said that Zaid Hamid leveled false and baseless allegations against Geo and Jang Group on different television channels without any proof.

Hamid started his malicious campaign on July 15, 2013 at an ARY television programme “Khara Sach”. He afterwards continued with his it at Express TV programme “Kal Tak” and Dawn News programme “News Eye” to damage the credibility of the petitioner.

The IMC on July 17 dispatched a legal notice to Hamid who instead of replying the notice, tweeted ridiculous and non-reasonable messages. The IMC then filed this lawsuit on July 30, 2013.

Counsel for IMC produced CDs and transcript before the court as proof of his contentions. The IHC, after hearing the final arguments, reserved judgment in this matter. It is to mention here that IHC bench has already declared this matter ex-parte as Zaid Hamid did not filed his representation before the court despite repeated notices.

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In its detailed order, the division bench headed by Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi, issued notices to the federal government through the Ministry of Information and also to Pemra and has called for comments on Geo’s petition, fixing May 2 as the next date of hearing.

In its petition, the Jang Group had contended that all over the world, it is routine for victims’ families to express suspicions for the help of investigating agencies. In England, a non UK citizen Mohammad Al Fayed has been conducting more than a decade of court battles to prove that his son Dodi Al Fayed and Lady Diana were murdered by MI6 of the UK. On his request, various inquests have taken place and the media has routinely reported proceedings of the court. No one has questioned this allegation as damaging the respect of MI6.

In the petition, Geo Jang Group has contended that while on the one hand, the federal government got a judicial commission set up headed by Justice Anwer Zaheer Jamali to look into the allegations of Hamid Mir’s family, on the other hand, without waiting for the findings of the judicial commission, it has reportedly filed a complaint with Pemra to cancel the Geo News licence.

In the petition, Geo has contended that on April 19, April 20 and also on April 21, no official of Pemra or that of the Ministry of Defence, contacted them to express unhappiness over the transmission and then without any prior communication, all of a sudden, the minister of interior and minister of defence filed complaints with Pemra.

In the petition, it has also been contended that the haste and arbitrariness that has been shown by the federal government when filing the complaint, the petitioner expects no fair, transparent and impartial adjudication on merit by Pemra, which has to-date never decided against the government of the day.

It was also pointed out that despite the worst kind of defamation that was conducted against the superior judiciary of Pakistan, to-date Pemra has not cancelled a single broadcasting licence.

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