The Lahore High Court (LHC) has dismissed a petition seeking to regulate online streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, ruling that current laws do not apply to digital services.
Justice Raheel Kamran Shaikh, in a 20-page written verdict, clarified that the Motion Picture Ordinance of 1979 only governs films screened in cinemas and does not extend to online platforms. The Punjab government, represented by Assistant Advocate General Muhammad Usman Khan, also opposed the plea.
The court observed that, after the 18th Constitutional Amendment, provinces enacted their own Motion Picture Acts to cover cinema, TV, and stage dramas, but none introduced laws for regulating digital streaming or social media.
The petitioner, a cinema owner, argued that streaming platforms should fall under the same regulatory framework as cinemas to ensure uniform content monitoring. However, the court noted that censoring the vast volume of online content was impractical and that lawmakers had made no effort to expand regulations to cover streaming services.
Concluding that online platforms function differently from cinemas, the LHC dismissed the petition as inconsistent with existing legislation.
