Imran Khan, leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), filed a petition on Wednesday challenging PEMRA’s decision to prohibit the broadcast of his speeches; however, Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan of the Lahore High Court (LHC) withdrew the petition on the same day.
Justice Hassan sent the case file to the chief justice of the LHC with a request to assign it to a different bench.
According to the order, allegedly issued on March 5 under Section 27 of the PEMRA Ordinance of 2002, Imran is continually accusing state institutions in his speeches and statements by “levelling baseless allegations and spreading hate speech through his provocative statements against state institutions and officers, which is detrimental to the maintenance of law and order and likely to disturb public peace and tranquility.”
The PTI chairman filed the petition through Barrister Muhammad Ahmad Pansota, claiming that Justice Athar Minallah of the Islamabad High Court had declared a similar prohibition order ultra vires the Ordinance in the “Imran Ahmad Khan Niazi vs. PEMRA” judgment on similar grounds.
Barrister Pansota argued in his petition to the LHC that “PEMRA issued the challenged order beyond the scope of its authority and without considering the constitutional rights protected by Articles 19 and 19-A of the Constitution.”
 refused to hear the petition of Imran Khan and sent the case file to the chief justice of the LHC.){kind=link}