Journalists protest against discrimination in full-court reference coverage
Only one private channel was given access to cover full court reference held for the outgoing CJP.
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) - The media groups have aggressively responded over the discrimination done by the Supreme Court by allowing only one private channel to cover the full court reference.
The full court reference was held in honour of outgoing Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Wednesday.
The state-run television was not even given access to cover the full court reference.
Raising voice against the discrimination, the media groups demanded the incoming Chief Justice to take suo motu action against this prejudice.
The journalists chanted slogans ‘Boycott Supreme Court’ ‘Boycott’ in the Supreme Court premises.
When the protest gained momentum, CJ’s Staff Officer Abdul Hameed came outside the hall and promised to hold an inquiry into the matter.
He said the court admin had hired a private cameraman to record the event and had been asked to provide footage to all TV channels. However, his explanation further complicated the situation as he failed to satisfy the reporters. He maintained that the cameraman ran away with the footage.
Commenting on the issue, former president Supreme Court Bar Association Rasheed A Rizvi said that the move was in violation of Article 25.
Had it been done by some public institution, a suo motu action would have been taken by Chief Justice, said Senator Aitzaz Ahsan.
He said that the Chief Justice might not guessing such reaction over permitting only one private TV channel for coverage of full court reference.
“Discrimination was just a no ball from Supreme Court’s side,” Aitzaz Ahsan said.
SCBA Secretary Asif Cheema said those favouring a single private TV channel would be exposed and the matter would be probed thoroughly.
Later, the Supreme Court Bar Association convened an emergency session over the issue and approved a unanimous resolution against the incident.
