Lahore High Court has dismissed a petition seeking regulation of streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, ruling that current legal provisions do not extend to digital services of this kind. Justice Raheel Kamran Shaikh issued a detailed 20-page verdict on Thursday in response to a plea filed by a private company. Representing the Punjab government, Assistant Advocate General Muhammad Usman Khan opposed the petition, emphasizing that the existing legislative framework does not cover online streaming content.
The judgment explained that the Motion Picture Ordinance of 1979 was formulated in an era before digital platforms and therefore applies strictly to films shown in cinemas. Its primary purpose was to ensure that movies released in theaters were subject to content oversight, with no clauses addressing online or on-demand streaming services, which did not exist at the time of enactment. Following the 18th Constitutional Amendment, censor board matters moved to provincial jurisdiction, and each province subsequently introduced its own Motion Picture Act to expand oversight to television broadcasts and stage dramas. However, none of these laws were extended to cover social media or subscription-based streaming platforms.
In its reasoning, the court addressed the petitioner’s claim that, because cinema content is regulated under the Motion Picture Ordinance, streaming platforms should also fall under the same framework. The petitioner, who owns a cinema and holds a screening license, argued that extending such regulation to streaming services would provide consistency in content monitoring across both physical and digital platforms. Justice Shaikh rejected this argument, observing that millions of hours of content are uploaded to streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, making it practically unfeasible to censor such material before it becomes available to the public.
The ruling further noted that if lawmakers intended to regulate online streaming services, they would have updated or amended the relevant laws to reflect this objective. Justice Shaikh clarified that streaming platforms operate under a fundamentally different business model from traditional cinemas and cannot be placed under the same legal regime designed for physical screenings. As a result, the court found no basis to extend existing film regulations to on-demand platforms and dismissed the petition as inconsistent with the current legal framework. This decision underscores the gap between traditional content laws and the rapidly evolving landscape of digital entertainment in Pakistan.
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