Daily Times

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb on Wednesday said the people, voters and legislators of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) firmly stood by its Qauid Muhammad Nawaz Sharif due to his ideology.

However, those who hatched conspiracies against the country could not face the people today, the minister said while addressing a news conference after his visit to the Shalimar Recording and Broadcasting Corporation.

She said the people fully knew that it was Nawaz Sharif who could steer the country out of the crises.

The three-time elected prime minister, she said, was removed in 2017 through a conspiracy which culminated into the “Project Imran” that was imposed on the nation in 2018 and the journey of development came to a grinding halt, the minister regretted.

She said many uplift projects started by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government were stopped, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor was put on the back burner, achievements against terrorism went in vain and the masses faced the worst inflation during the four-year tenure of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) regime.

In the last 15 months, she said, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif along with his allies brought the country out of crisis created during the four-year inefficient and incompetent rule of the PTI.

She remarked that the PTI chairman was “an enemy of the country”, who first signed an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on tough conditions, then violated and suspended it for petty political gains jeopardising the economy and prestige of the nation.

Marriyum said the PTI regime was bent upon auctioning the national institutions, however, it was the current government which had completely transformed them by initiating reform programmes. The minister congratulated PML-N leaders Talal Chaudhry and Daniyal Aziz as their five-year disqualification period had come to an end. The two leaders, she said, stood firm with Nawaz Sharif and the party in difficult and tough times.

“Talal Chaudhry and Daniyal Aziz fought against the odds and remained steadfast as political workers,” she added.

The minister said the National Assembly had approved the PEMRA Amendment Bill, expressing her gratitude for the media workers and stakeholders for supporting the bill.

After the passage of this bill, she added, minimum salary of media workers would now be as per the government’s guidelines, and the issue of delay in the payment of salaries would also be resolved. The media, she said, through a self-regulatory move had joined hands with the government to make ‘misinformation and disinformation’ as part of the bill. She said that the amendment was enacted to promote responsible journalism in the country. Now, they would have to fulfill their responsibilities on misinformation and disinformation, she maintained.

The scope of public service messaging had been widened in the amended PEMRA Bill, Marriyum Aurangzeb noted.

She congratulated the employees of Shalimar Recording and Broadcasting Corporation (SRBC) on the completion of 108-room building. She said when the present government came to power, the building of SRBC was a ruin, and employees were on the streets as they were not paid salaries and pensions for many months. Now, she added, that their salaries and pensions were being paid in time.

Marriyum said during the PTI era, the minister concerned used to talk about the auction of the buildings of PTV, Radio Pakistan and SRBC but the present regime in only 15 months had taken concrete steps for their transformation on modern lines so that they could stand on their own feet. She said that the former prime minister was termed a “media predator” by an international organization, whereas during the past 15 months, Pakistan’s ranking in the freedom of expression index had improved by seven points. She said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif would formally launch the health card scheme for artists and journalists.