Daily Times

The meeting of the Sub-Committee on Human Rights was held on Tuesday under the convenership of Senator Usman Khan Kakar.

Senator Krishna Kumari Kohli, Senator Dr Jehanzeb Jamaldini and senior officers of the Home Department of Punjab, Directorate General Public Relations (DGPR), Ministry of Human Rights, government of Pakistan and DMD Pakistan Television Corporation attended the meeting.

The meeting was called to probe airing of a hatred advertisement by PTV on the occasion of Muharram. Committee Convener Usman Khan Kakar said that the meeting had been called to ensure that those responsible for content creation and airing of this advertisement are taken to the task.

He said the media must show positivity and avoid misleading the people of Pakistan.

Dr Jehanzeb Jamaldini condemned the advertisement and said that if human error was taken into account, there could be one person at fault. However, in this case we see a chain of human errors. This cannot be called human error, but continuous departmental error. He suggested that there should have been a department who would have scrutinised this advertisement and informed the departments of the effects of airing this advert. We must find a way out of this and see how this error took place on such a large scale.

Punjab Home Department Additional Secretary Dr Saqib Ahmed Khan informed the committee that the error was rectified at their end and that the advertisement was revised through a notification.

Absolving all government departments involved in creation and airing of the advertisement, of any fault, DGPR Director General Amjad Hussain placed complete responsibility of the error on the private advertising agency that filmed it. He said that after the parent department approves the advertisement DGPR disseminates it to the various media houses. Dr Jamaldini refuted these claims and said that the script writer was equally involved and must be blacklisted. The committee stressed the need that the content of the advertisement must have been reviewed thoroughly.

DGPR assured the sub-committee that in future, DGPR will ensure that all advertisements are reviewed thoroughly by a department within DGPR.

PTV DMD Hassan Imaad Muhammad informed the sub-committee of the findings of the PTV Inquiry Committee. He said that it was concluded that the advertisement provided by the DGPR was telecast without censor by the PTV Censor Board due to the fact that government advertisements are prepared under the supervision of high level officers and government commercials always contain public awareness messages. It is pertinent to mention that PTV is a government state broadcaster with 100 percent shares owned by the government of Pakistan. We therefore obey government instructions in letter and spirit. DGPR informed the committee that an email was sent by the advertising agency to all channels that were to air the advertisement. Krishna Kumari Kohli showed displeasure regarding delay in producing documents that support the case.

The sub-committee asserted that the officers, under whom the decisions had been taken, even though transferred; must be present in the next meeting. Ministry of Human Rights DG recommended procedural changes that content being disseminated to the press must be evaluated on two or three tiers. Also a time frame must be set to avoid releasing content at the 11th hour.

Published in Daily Times, November 21^st 2018.