A meeting of Pakistan Electronic Media Regularity Authority (Pemra) officials on Monday, taking notice of a delay in action against the Lahore High Court's (LHC) move to set aside the direct-to-home (DTH) license auction held last year, directed Pemra Chairman Absar Alam to file an appeal in the apex court against the decision.

DTH is a digital box that gives customers channels permitted to be aired in the country without any cable connection.

Pemra had held an auction for three DTH programming licences in Nov, 2016. The auction was held after the Supreme Court allowed the authority to proceed with it, but barred it from awarding the contract.

The LHC had ruled in Dec 2016 that Pemra had acted in violation of its own ordinance while conducting bidding for DTH licences.

Read more: LHC rules Pemra violated its own law while conducting DTH licence auction

A press release issued by Pemra today said that participants of the body's 125th meeting had directed the chairman to "immediately file an appeal in the Supreme Court against the LHC's Nov 23, 2016 decision".

Explore: LHC stays DTH licence bidding process

Participants of the meeting asked Pemra Chairman Absar Alam why there had been a delay appealing against the LHC's decision.

Lahore blast coverage

The meeting also expressed disappointment over the "unprofessional editorial judgement of 29 television channels with regard to airing fake news of bomb blast in Gulberg, Lahore and spreading panic and fear," the statement added.

Participants also directed the Pemra chairman to take appropriate measures against these channels so that they follow the Code of Conduct and "improve their respective TV channels' weak internal systems."