Islamabad High Court Chief Justice Athar Minallah said on Friday that conflict of interest should be kept in consideration while issuing licences to TV channels.

Justice Minallah's remake came during the hearing of a plea filed by the Pakistan Broadcasters Association (PBA) against Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) for issuing more TV licences than the capacity of its log system.

PBA lawyer Faisal Siddiqui noted that Pemra had already issued licences to at least 150 TV channels that included 109 satellite channels and others to which landing rights had been granted.

Pemra's log system does not have the capacity to show such a large number of TV channels, while the regulator was also planning to add more channels to its already overstretched capacity, the PBA lawyer pointed out. "According to Pemra, after digitalisation its log system capacity would be for 350 channels and we don't have any objections to that," the lawyer added.

At this, Justice Minallah inquired that to whom Pemra was issuing more than 300 licences and what was the basis for issuing them. The CJ observed that conflict of interest should be kept in consideration while issuing licenses to TV channels as when a proprietor censors information, it was a violation of Article 19 and 19-A.

Justice Minallah remarked that if the owner of a channel conceals information to protect his business interest, it is against freedom of press and the freedom is possible when there is no conflict of interest.

A license was being issued to channels through a proper process, noted Ahmed Pervaiz, the lawyer representing Pemra.

The chief justice inquired whether a political party is eligible to get the licence.

At this the Pemra lawyer said this point was not in the petition but the lawyer would assist the court in it.

Talking about the log capacity of Pemra for issuing licenses, the lawyer said it was not appropriate to say that Pemra did not have the capacity to show all channels. A study has been done on the Pemra's capacity and its results are contrary to the claims made by the PBA lawyer, he noted.

The chief justice directed the Pemra lawyer to provide this study to the PBA lawyer and asked the later to give arguments on it in the next hearing.

Raising another point, the PBA lawyer said the licence of distribution should not be granted to a TV channel and added that Pemra considered that collecting revenue for the government was its responsibility

In his remarks, the chief justice said that the PBA complained that Pemra was issuing licences one after another and remarked that while issuing licenses, the main focus should be on Article 19 and Article 19-A, if the authorities want the country should move forward.

The number of channels should be increased if direct-to-home (DTH) has to be introduced as it is only possible through granting more licences to TV channels, noted the Pemra lawyer.

Later, the court adjourned the case till March 9.

This is not the first time that Pemra has been taken to court for issuing more licences to TV channels than its capacity.

In 2019, the PBA filed a case against the regulator for issuing more licences than its capacity, while the Pemra had dismissed a PBA letter seeking moratorium on issuing the licences, reported Dawn.

At that time Pemra had issued 119 licences to TV channels. As per the court order then, the Pemra was allowed issuance of licences to 58 satellite TV channels including eight news and current affairs channels while protecting the rights of the existing television operators.