Dawn challenges withholding of ads by federal govt in SHC

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KARACHI: The Pakistan Herald Publications (Pvt) Limited on Thursday filed a petition in the Sindh High Court (SHC) challenging the withholding of advertisements by the federal government from daily Dawn.

The petition filed by Advocate Muneer A. Malik on behalf of the PHPL and Hameed Haroon, the CEO of the PHPL, names as respondents the federation of Pakistan through the secretary of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the Press Information Department (PID) through the principal information officer of the information ministry.

According to the petition, the federal government has suddenly stopped placing advertisements in Dawn since January 2020 and no reason has been communicated to the publication for the same even though such advertisements were being placed in the newspaper for decades.

It states that the ban on the publication of the government advertisements in daily Dawn is based on mala fide intentions. “In fact, Dawn is being punished for the views and reports that it has published in its various editions as these views and reports do not conform to the views and opinions held by […] the highest functionaries of the federal government,” the petition says.