Urdu language TV channel 92 News has shut down transmission in the UK after Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Senior Vice President and Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif filed a defamation case at the UK High Court against the news channel over a programme aired in the UK by the channel, making false accusations of Maryam Nawaz taking Toshakhana gifts in the alleged violation of rules and in conspiracy with the bureaucrats.
92 News/Glaxy Broadcasting Network Limited has previously apologised to PML-N’s Senator Ishaq Dar in the UK in his defamation case and also lost a defamation case against PML-N UK vice president Nasir Mahmood.
Last month, the channel sent out a notification to the UK government’s TV regulator and Sky management that it was winding up the company (Glaxy Broadcasting Network Limited) that owned 92 News in the UK and would stop broadcasting in the UK after July 31, 2024.
Maryam Nawaz started a case against 92 News/Glaxy after anchors on a TV show on November 17, 2022, accused Maryam of retaining Toshakhana gifts. The anchors alleged that Maryam Nawaz took a watch from Toshakhana worth a million for only Rs45,000 with help from the bureaucracy in a corrupt scheme.
Maryam Nawaz’s lawyers hold that she never received any such gift, and have sought an apology and damages. Her lawyers stated in court papers at the UK High Court that Maryam had suffered serious harm to her reputation from the imputations in the broadcast, and therefore the channel should apologise.
Maryam Nawaz was represented in the case by Stone White Solicitors.
92 News' response
The lawyers said that their client, 92 News/Glaxy has 'not shut down its operations in the UK' or wound up the company. However, the channel has only been taken off from the service provider, "Sky", due to 'administrative issues' while it has been shifted to other 'digital media' platforms.