ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed controversial TV anchor Aamir Liaqat Hussain to pay a fine of Rs20,000 for his failure to appear before the court in the hearing of a defamation suit against him.
During the proceedings, Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar asked Liaquat’s counsel to explain why an arrest warrant should not be issued against his client for his absence. The chief justice noted that Liaquat, who has recently been elected to the National Assembly on a PTI ticket, had assured the court that he would not indulge in any hate speech in his TV programmes and said that the court would still review transcripts of his programmes to ascertain whether or not he defied orders.
Liaquat was told to deposit the fine money into the Diamer Bhasha dam fund started by the top court.
Earlier, Faisal Qureshi, the counsel for the petitioners, contended that Liaqat levelled false and baseless allegations on several citizens and politicians in his programme on Bol TV.
In multiple petitions filed in May 2017, the employees of the Independent Media group – the parent company of Jang and Geo group – including Mir Shakilur Rehman, Najam Sethi and Shahzeb Khanzada sought action against Liaqat for his defamatory speech against them in his TV programmes. They said that the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) banned Liaquat for preaching hate in January of 2017.
“During several weeks it has been monitored that Amir Liaquat host of the programme Aisay Nahi Chalay Ga, in the episodes broadcast on BOL News from January 2, 2017 to January 24, 2017, has willfully and repeatedly made statements and allegations which tantamount to hate speech, derogatory remarks, incitement to violence against citizens and casting accusation of being anti-state and anti-Islam, on various individuals” read a notice from the regulatory body.
Published in Daily Times, August 9th 2018.
