Daily Times

Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry on Wednesday said that the leadership of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) should first learn to stand on their own feet before trying to oust the incumbent government.

In a tweet on Wednesday, the minister said that Pakistan People’s Party’s rally in Peshawar on Tuesday is a good omen for the mainstream politics. He said Pakistan needs federal parties and that the PML-N should also come out of Central Punjab. He said that unfortunately the leadership of both parties have no agenda. “Politics confined to region will end as no party can survive on mere criticism,” he said, and added that instead of trying to topple the government, they should first learn to stand on their own feet. He urged both the parties to give their suggestions for major reforms in the country.

In a separate tweet, Fawad said that Prime Minister Imran Khan has convened the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Core Committee meeting on Thursday. In a tweet, he said the party leadership would be taken into confidence on different measures including some social initiatives such as Kamyab Pakistan, Ehsaas Programme and Sehat Insaf Card during the meeting. Meanwhile, Federal Minister for Information Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said that for the first time under the Protection of Journalists and Media Professionals Act 2021, working journalists in Pakistan had been given the rights being enjoyed by the journalists in advanced democracies. Addressing the signing ceremony of “Protection of Journalists and Media Professionals Act 2021”, here he said that credit for Media Professionals Act 2021 went to Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari who made tireless efforts for its finalization and enactment. The minister said that in preparation of the act, consultations were held with all journalist groups including journalist organizations. Fawad said that the responsibility of the government and the Ministry of Information was to stand behind the working journalists.

A section in Pakistan had been trying to give the impression that the press was not free here, Fawad said adding if there was no free press in Pakistan then there was no free press anywhere in the world. “When it comes to press freedom, we compare ourselves not with the Third World and the Muslim World but with the First World. We have no laws of defamation, so we have more freedom of the press than the first world,” he said.

The minister said another aspect was that these freedoms were reserved for the media tycoons and working journalists were not getting the rights they should have been given. He said the government through the new act had tried to give due rights to working journalists under Media Professionals Act. He said in the new act it was mandatory that if the owners sends a cameramen to an event the responsibility lied on him to provide the cameramen due protection.

The employment of working journalists has also been protected in the Media Professionals Act and for the first time an independent commission for journalists has been set up which will decide complaints within 14 days.

The minister said that the act also provides protection to working journalists from employers and government officials. Many officials do not like reports of corruption in their departments in newspapers. Through this law, the government had tried to create an environment in which journalists could be protected, he said.