A critical view of LHC’s order nullifying appointment of PEMRA chair

ISLAMABAD: On Monday, the Lahore High Court annulled the appointment of Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) Chairman Absar Alam on a petition filed in December 2015 by a citizen Munir Ahmed. Following that, Alam relinquished the charge of the office voluntarily without seeking any stay. The petition accused Alam inter alia of working to promote immorality as a former employee of an international non-governmental organisation. The petition also claimed the violation of merit in the appointment of Mr Alam alongside drawing a salary beyond the permissible range for a position equivalent to the MP-I (Management Position) scale. It also levelled the allegation that Mr. Alam’s appointment was an open case of nepotism and violation of merit on part of the federal government that relaxed the education criteria for the post to accommodate him. Curiously enough, the petition remained pending for almost two years. The hearings started only after a section of media started raising the issue on daily basis during the prime time. These sections have been at the receiving end of the regulatory actions by PEMRA for violating the code of ethics injunctive through the PEMRA rules that all the licensees are bound to abide by. Most hit by the actions of PEMRA – under the Chairpersonship of Mr. Alam – were the anchors and channels busy in the one-sided libellous campaigns against politicians, and those committing hate speech against certain religious and ethnic communities. As per the details of the case, during the last few months of the previous government, the then Information Secretary had managed to induct himself as PEMRA Chairman through a non-competitive process by merely moving a summary to the Prime Minister. When the new government came after the general elections in 2013, it wanted to appoint a new Chair for this important regularity body. But when the process was initiated to remove the incumbent, he went into litigation against the action. But the government went ahead with publishing an advertisement in 2014, seeking applications for the position. The required qualification as per that advertisement was Master’s degree or LLB (Bachelor of Law). The Islamabad High Court subsequently scrapped the ad. It was only after thirteen months of this event that Supreme Court ordered the government to appoint a regular Chair of the Authority, when two officers claimed to be Acting Chair of PEMRA during the hearing of another case involving the Authority. Complying with it, the federal government gave a new advertisement, this time lowering down the qualification requirement to Bachelor’s degree instead of Master’s. An official of Information Ministry told Daily Times that it was done in order to maximise the number of applications by the experienced practitioners because the Ministry had not received even a single application in response to the previous advertisement – a claim which could possibly be a cover for the alleged nepotism, which had to be proven in the court in order to seek nullification of this advertisement and the following appointment under it. This was perhaps the first time that PEMRA Chair was being appointed following a transparent process through advertisement, short listing of candidates and interviews. In November 2015, finally, Absar Alam, who is a senior journalist with proven record of quality journalism, was selected and appointed the Chair of the Authority. But this appointment was challenged in Lahore High Court within three weeks, i.e., in December 2015. After remaining pending for almost two years, the court miraculously started hearing the case in 2017 when Mr. Alam stepped on some powerful toes. In addition to making PEMRA unprecedentedly effective – hyperactive at many points – Mr. Alam had committed a grave mistake of releasing the audio recording of a threatening phone call that his office had received when a TV channel supported by powerful quarters was suspended by Mr. Alam because of the libellous campaigns and hate speech that this channel unabashedly continued despite a number of warnings. In a surprising move, after having reserved the judgment in this case on November 29, Lahore High Court’s Justice Shahid Kareem held the judgment despite putting it in the Cause List on Friday 15th December and announced the judgment would be given on 18th December. On Monday morning, the honourable judge verbally announced the nullification of the appointment of Mr. Alam, without giving any details of court’s reasoning for the judgment. Till the filing of this report, the court order was not signed by the judge. As per the court resources, the judgment was being discussed within the bench as ‘unnecessarily controversial’, and might bear some changes in its final shape. Cutting the long story short, this case is a grim reminder of how the non-democratic forces and bullying sections of media are trying to hold the judicial system hostage to their own interests. If dispensing justice is the highest virtue, here is yet another case that might be remembered for rushing the process pandering to powerful lobbies instead of legal evidence at hand. Published in Daily Times, December 20th 2017.