Pakistan actor Veena Malik, her husband, and the owner of the country's biggest media group, Geo TV, have been sentenced to 26 years in prison by an anti-terrorism court for allegedly airing a blasphemous programme.

Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman, owner of Geo and Jang group, was accused of allowing the airing of a blasphemous programme by Geo television in May, which played a religious song while staging a mock marriage of Malik with Bashir.

Judge Shahbaz Khan also sentenced both Malik and Bashir, along with TV host Shaista Wahidi, to 26 years each. The ATC also imposed a 1.3 million Pakistani rupees fine on the convicts.

The judge said in his judgment that the four accused had committed profanity and asked the police to arrest them, an official said. But the order is unlikely to be implemented because the Gilgit-Baltistan region is not considered a full-fledged province by Pakistan and verdicts by its courts do not apply to the rest of the country.

There are reports that all four are out of Pakistan.Rahman lives in UAE and the other three also went abroad after getting threats from militant groups. Both Wahidi and the Geo group had tendered apologies but extremists refused to accept them.