Daily Times

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan on Monday asked PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to better address the governance issues of his party’s government in Sindh, where people were facing miseries.

Talking to a private news channel, Dr Firdous said the leaders of Pakistan People’s Party, who were living in glass houses, using mineral water and availing perks and privileges, could never feel the pain of poor people of Sindh, who were compelled to drink filthy water.

Playing gimmicks for political point scoring, she said, would never resolve the problems being faced by the people of Sindh, she observed. The PPP leaders should better empower the institutions in the province for the purpose, she added.

Replying to a question about the women march, Dr Firdous said the ideology and concept of the march were very clear that women should be empowered and given representation in every institution to take the country forward.

There might be some concern over some slogans of the march because the West and the East hold different ideologies, values and cultures, she said, adding ,”We should keep in mind the our cultural values, and rules and regulation of our society.” However, it was the responsibility of every person to provide better opportunities to the opposite gender so that they could play constructive roles in every field, Dr Firdous said.

To a query about Nawaz Sharif, she said the Pakistan Muslim League-N leader should return to the country as the people could only reduce his pain of being out of power.

The Federal Government, she said, was following the Constitution and laws of the land and had directed the Punjab government to approach the court for bringing the PML-N leader back to the country.

To another question, she said the people had expressed full confidence in the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan, who was making efforts to put the country on the path of speedy progress.

Meanwhile, Firdous Ashiq Awan said Pakistan could only progress by empowering woman in all spheres of life through all possible means.

However, the controversial jingles could harm the cause of women’s march. She expressed these views in the National Assembly Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting’s meeting. The meeting was chaired by MNA Mian Javed Latif.

The special assistant said Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government was committed to safeguard the women’s rights through legislation and its implementation in the society.

Regarding the woman march, she said the government remained neutral instead of supporting any side of the divide adding the electronic media, on her request, played a responsible role in the coverage of ‘Aurat March’ but unfortunately, social media did not made responsible reporting on the occasion.

She suggested the committee that Pakistan Telecom Authority chairman should be summoned and asked about preventing the digital media from such inflammatory postings on different social platforms.

She said there was a dire need to create balance between two extremes through legislation and regulation.

The committee appreciated the Special Assistant Dr Firdous and her ministry’s overtures for handling the women march properly as two percent violators failed to convince rest of the population about their negative slogans like ‘Mera Jism Meri Marzi’.

The committee stressed upon the need for launching of a proper media awareness campaign about the laws available for the protection of women’s rights so that their implementation could be ensured at grassroots level.

The committee expressed concerns over the non-adherence on PEMRA’s code of conduct by private media channels.

The committee, therefore, decided to invite all media channels’ owners in the next meeting to devise a strategy regarding the elimination of negative elements from the media contents so that soft image of Pakistan could be presented on the globe. Moreover, the issue of retrenchment of media persons could also be discussed to safeguard their interests.The meeting was attended by MNAs Engr Usman Khan Tarakai, Tahir Iqbal, Aftab Jahangir, Kanwal Shauzab, Syed Amin-ul-Haque, Zulfiqar Ali Behan, Syma Nadeem and officials of information ministry and its attached departments.