Hearing of plea against Geo TV's relegation adjourned till Wednesday

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday postponed for a day the hearing on a petition against the relegation of Geo News to back numbers by cable operators after the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) arrested the Editor-in-Chief of Jang and Geo Media Group, Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman (MSR) last week.

IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah presided the hearing today on the petition filed by Raja Ahsan Mehmood and Faisal Advocate through their lawyer, Jahangir Jadoon, earlier this week.

"The Editor-in-Chief of Jang and Geo Media Group, Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman, was arrested in lieu of NAB laws. The arrest is in violation of a verdict of the IHC against the powers of arrest granted to the accountability bureau," the petition stated.

"After the arrest of MSR, the placement of Geo News was changed by cable operators. The move was aimed at building pressure and silencing the voice of free press in Pakistan" the petition said, demanding that the position of the channel be restored.

During the hearing today, the court ordered for NAB chairman's name to be removed from the list of respondents. Meanwhile, the petitioners' counsel asked for PEMRA chairman to be made a respondent into the petition.

Read also: Petition submitted in IHC against closure of Geo News, relegation of channel

NAB arrests MSR in property case

NAB had on Thursday arrested the Editor-in-Chief of the Jang and Geo Media Group in connection with property allegedly bought illegally from a government entity more than 34 years ago.

The property was in fact bought from a private party 34 years ago and all evidence of this was given to NAB and legal requirements fulfilled, such as duty and taxes.

According to the Group's spokesperson, the appearance of MSR before NAB was in a relation to a call-up notice for the verification of the complaint, yet an arrest was made. Islamabad High Court's recent judgment against NAB's violation of the country’s law and a violation of NAB's own rules has been committed.

"In the past 18 months, NAB has sent our reporters, producers, and editors — directly and indirectly — over a dozen notices, threatening a shutdown of our channels (via PEMRA) due to our reporting and our programmes on NAB," said the spokesperson.

"In its defense, NAB has in writing said it is a constitutionally protected institution that cannot be criticised. NAB has also, through several means, tried to persuade the group to step back, to stop stories, among other measures in its favor at the expense of the full truth.

"The Group will not stop any reporters, producers or anchors from any story that is on merit and at the same time will include NAB’s version. In this case, NAB denies all allegations above and claims they are independently pursuing all cases and have not been asked to do by the democratically elected government in Islamabad," the spokesperson added.