Islamabad :
Federal Ministers for Information and Broadcasting Maryam and Nagzeb have said that the appeal filed by the Prime Minister against the decision of the Islamabad High Court declaring section 20 of the PICA Amendment Ordinance unconstitutional has been withdrawn.
In a statement on the social networking site Twitter, Information and Broadcasting Minister Maryam and Nagzeb said that the Prime Minister and I have just learned that the FIA had approached the Islamabad High Court seeking reinstatement of Section 20 of the PICA Act 2016 in the Supreme Court. Has filed a petition against the decision.
He said the request was withdrawn immediately, as it was against the government’s policy and principles required to ensure expression.
“The prime minister has taken stern notice of the petition,” he said.
“Unfortunately, the news of the application reached us late because we were in Besham during the day where there were no signals,” the information minister said.
Earlier, the FIA had challenged in the Supreme Court the order of the Islamabad High Court declaring section 20 of the PICA Amendment Ordinance unconstitutional.
The FIA had taken a stand in the petition that without any legal justification, the Islamabad High Court had granted relief to the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and misinterpreted Articles 19 and 19A of the Constitution.
The petition said that the Islamabad High Court had inactivated Section 20 of the PECA without any legal justification, which would incite the violators to break the law.
The FIA had requested the Supreme Court to suspend the decision of the Islamabad High Court, which was announced on April 8, 2022.
It may be recalled that on April 8, Chief Justice of the Islamabad High Court Athar Minallah had issued a four-page written judgment on the petitions of PFUJ and others.
In a summary judgment, the court had said that in a written decision, the Chief Justice of the High Court had said that freedom of expression is a fundamental right and strengthens all other rights conferred under the Constitution.
The decision stated that the PICA Ordinance was enacted “in violation of the Constitution and the fundamental rights provided under it, in particular Articles 9, 14, 19 and 19-A”, including the preconditions of jurisdiction. Were not present.
The Chief Justice of the Islamabad High Court had declared the PICA Ordinance and its implementation as ‘unconstitutional’ and repealed it.
