Morality in Public Broadcast: A Discussion in the Light of Supreme Court Judgement

A recent judgment of the Supreme Court of Pakistan on the broadcast laws interpreted the legal procedures for reviewing content and went on to define public morality. The judgment relied on the mention of ‘tolerance’ as a value that appears in the preamble of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and advised the media regulators to employ this ‘preambular value’ in reviewing any broadcast material. However, the problem with this reliance is that the court severed the word from its context, which suggests a recourse to Islam in practicing this value. Expanding the scope of this value, the judgment subtly mentions certain objectionable distinctions in the constitutional context. This issue brief discusses the judgment in the country’s constitutional framework and suggests that the Supreme Court review it.