LAHORE: An Anti-Terrorism Court in Lahore on Friday asked the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) to ban all media channels from airing news about the motorway gang-rape incident.

The trial court issued the decision after hearing the request submitted by the Investigation Officer (IO) Zulfiqar Cheema seeking a ban on media coverage of the incident. In his request, the IO maintained that the reckless coverage by the media of the case would damage and diminish the evidence so far collected by the police and has created a hindrance to the arrest of the primary suspect Abid Ali who is still at large.

Deputy Prosecutor General Waqar Abid Bhatti seconded the IO's request and relied his argument upon section 13(2) of the Punjab Witness Protection Act 2018, according to which:

“The reporting of the identity of a person connected with an offense of terrorism or a sexual offense or the identity of the members of his family shall be prohibited in print, electronic or other media, if the court is satisfied that the quality or voluntariness of the evidence of the person concerned will diminish thereby.”

Presiding Judge Arshad Hussain Bhutta admitted the contention of the IO and issued the following verdict:

“So chairman Pemra is hereby directed to stop the coverage of case FIR No.1369/2020 of Sept 9, 2020, an offense under section 392, 376 (II), 427, 34 of PPC and 7 Anti-terrorism Act 1997, police station Gujjarpura, Lahore immediately on electronic media, print, and social media.”

Complying with the court order, Pemra’s General Manager (Operations-Broadcast Media) Muhammad Tahir issued the following directive, therefore restraining all media outlets from covering the case any further:

“All satellite TV channels (news & current affairs) are therefore directed to comply with the orders of the honorable Anti-Terrorism Court, Lahore, regarding the Sialkot motorway incident in letter and spirit and refrain from airing any content with regard to the instant case, in future.”

It is worthy to mention that the Punjab government and police had widely circulated pictures and confidential details of two suspects including the primary suspect Abid Ali with an announcement of prize money of 2.5 lac for providing information related to either accused. The secondary suspect, police had circulated the details of was cleared of all charges after police conducted a DNA test when he surrendered himself.