No signatures: Time to appeal for extending the ban on Geo lapsed
Attorney General had not filed the appeal as it didn't bear the signatures of relevant authority
ISLAMABAD: (Dunya News) The Geo - Defense Ministry row continues in the same confusing style. Appeal for extending the ban on Geo was to be filed within a month of the imposing of ban but it never got filed and now the time has lapsed. Government has been playing the one-step-forward-two-steps-back game on this issue since the very first day and now that the duration for filing the petition has lapsed, the ban on Geo cannot be extended any further. According to the PEMRA Ordinance, Section 30 [A], an appeal against a decision of the jury can only be filed within thirty days of the decision. The decision that banned Geo for 15 days had come on the 6th of the previous month. According to the sources, Attorney General, Salman Aslam, had declined from filing the appeal before PEMRA saying that the appeal did not bear the signatures of the competent authority without which the appeal was of no legal value.
Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) had previously banned Geo for 15 days in its June 6 decision. PEMRA had banned the channel for a fortnight and had also imposed a fine of Rs. 10 million. The complaint was filed by the Defense Ministry after the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Chief, General Zaheer-ul-Islam, was blamed for an attack on senior journalist Hamid Mir in Karachi. Geo had displayed the spy-chief photo of the country on its channel for more than eight hours and repeatedly alleged him of being the central character of Hamid Mir murder attempt. Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif had moved to PEMRA to file a petition against Geo for defaming the DG-ISI. Khawaja Asif, on behalf of Defense Ministry, had taken the plea in this appeal that the channel had defamed the head of the country s top intelligence agency deliberately and deserved a punishment therefore.
When the ban got imposed, Defense Minister expressed his displeasure over such a short ban. He came on TV and said that he was not at all pleased with the ban and announced that he would file an appeal before PEMRA to extend it.
