Islamabad (August 29, 2018): Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry on Wednesday announced a new, unified regulatory authority is being established to replace the existing Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) and Press Council of Pakistan.
Talking to the newsmen outside Parliament House, Fawad Chaudhry said that “the government has decided [to do away] with PEMRA and Press Council and form a single, unified authority to oversee print as well as electronic and cyber media.”
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The new regulator, named Pakistan Media Regulatory Authority, will comprise top officials and representatives from the media industry, the minister informed.
He said the measure would help save national resources as the new regulatory body would look after electronic, print and social media simultaneously.
Speaking about state television, Chaudhry reiterated that his ministry has ended censorship of state media and the state television channel will broadcast whatever happens in the Parliament.
He said the public’s money will not be used by the government for personal advertisements. Slamming the rival Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, he said, “PML-N government sustained itself through advertisements.”
Criticising Maulana Fazlur Rahman’s bid for presidential election, Chaudhry said everyone can see how serious Maulana Fazl is for presidency.
“For Maulana Fazl, the Parliament is ‘bogus’ and the votes are ‘fake’, but he wants to become president by obtaining votes from this same Parliament,” the minister remarked.
Earlier, addressing on Senate floor, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhary told the house during question hour that the previous government used massive amount on advertisement for self-projection and its publicity.
The previous government in the center spent seventeen billion rupees on ads and if the amount spent by the Punjab government is also accumulated then that figures reach forty billion rupees.
He said Prime Minister Imran Khan has given clear instructions that no amount will be spent for self-projection or the publicity of the government.
Adviser on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan said the present government will speed up the process of reforms in seminaries. He said this will help bring the seminary students in the national mainstream and also create job opportunities for them. He said that six hundred and eighty-nine (689) seminaries have been registered in FATA while in the rest of the country 176 seminaries have so far been registered.
Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid told the House that the deficit of Pakistan Railways was over thirty billion rupees in 2013 while it rose to about forty-one billion rupees in 2018. He said that a proposal regarding leasing out the land of Pakistan Railways will be presented in the cabinet meeting.
The Chair admitted for discussion an adjournment motion regarding excessive use and sale of antibiotics.
It was moved by Mian Muhammad Ateeq Shaikh.
Due to lack of quorum, the House was adjourned to meet again tomorrow at 11 in the morning.
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