In his affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court in connection with the infamous Faizabad sit-in review case on Monday, Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) former chairman Absar Alam Haider accused then-Director General of Counter Intelligence (DG-C) at the Inter-Services Intelligence Major General Faiz Hamid and his subordinates of controlling the “TV Channel policy” through “unlawful means”.
Multiple pleas were filed challenging the verdict on the Faizabad protest staged by the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) in 2017 against the then-Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government. Last month, the apex court — in response to a series of review petitions submitted against its previous ruling — had said that it would revisit the Faizabad sit-in case.
The review petitions were filed by the Ministry of Defence, Pemra, Intelligence Bureau (IB), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Awami Muslim League (AML) chief Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed, Ejazul Haq and others.
Surprisingly, as the apex court three-member bench led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Qazi Faez Isa and comprising Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Aminuddin Khan is all set to hear the set of review petitions against the top court’s 2019 order, the federal government, Pemra, Sheikh Rashid, ECP, IB and others decided to withdraw their pleas and submit their responses in writing and explain the reasons behind their decision.
Taking up the set of petitions on September 28, the CJP had expressed his annoyance after many sought to withdraw their review pleas and asked “Why everyone is so scared?”
The top court had directed all the parties to submit their replies by October 27. The top court will resume hearing the petitions on November 1.
In his written reply, Haider said, Pemra officials were under pressure from “serving officers”, adding that he himself “received calls” from the then DG(C) Major General (retd) Hamid and or his subordinates complaining that their requests were not acceded to by him.
