The Islamabad high court has suspended the order of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) against the TV drama Hadsa, which is closely based on the motorway rape case.

On August 30th the regulators banned the drama serial and said in the notification that the drama had caused public outrage. A complaint against the ban was filed by lawyer Khadija Siddiqui.

The notification said that people had complained that the drama could not only trigger the trauma of the incident in the mind of the victim but also ‘tarnish’ the image of the country.

However, in the written verdict the IHC stated: “The impugned order dated 30.08.2023, passed by Pemra has been suspended in the light of case law”.

“Only the objectionable part should be prohibited from being broadcasted and directed to be suitably modified, and the broadcast or rebroadcast of the complete play or drama must not be prohibited,” it said.

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The court also sought an undertaking by the producer/director of the drama that the rape scene referred to in Episode-5 may not be repeated/re-telecasted/broadcasted in any manner in the subsequent episodes.

The issue was triggered after Fareeha M Idrees posted on X, formerly known as Twitter that she received a call from the victim of Motorway who had told her that the drama was based on her story.