ISLAMABAD - The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Wednesday turned down federal government’s application seeking suspension of its earlier orders regarding the restoration of Rashid Ahmed Chaudhary as chairman Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA).
A single bench of IHC comprising Justice Noor-ul-Haq N Qureshi conducted the hearing of miscellaneous application and Idris Ashraf Advocate appeared before the court on behalf of Chairman PEMRA while Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Afnan Karim Kundi represented the federation.
During the hearing, Justice Qureshi asked from Advocate Ashraf to inform the court about the current situation of the matter. In response, he told the court that after the announcement of the court’s verdict, Chaudhary Rashid assumed the charge of his office.
At this juncture, the DAG contended that restoration of Rashid is against the facts and he himself recommended his name for this post by abusing his powers as secretary information.
He also argued that it is very strange that Ahmed assumed his office without waiting for the written judgment of the court while the government had also not issued the notification so far in this matter.
Expressing his annoyance over the argument, Justice Qureshi remarked that the government did not need any notification to implement court’s orders. He also added that Chaudhary Rashid had moved the petition for his restoration instead of seeking implementation on court’s orders while the court had accepted the same.
Then, Kundi requested the court to suspend the restoration orders since the federation is making preparation to move an Intra Court Appeal (ICA) against the said court orders. However, the court rejected his plea. Earlier, Kundi had filed the application in this matter and prayed to the court to halt implementation on its earlier orders about restoration of Rashid Ahmed as chairman PEMRA.