ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari urged media on Sunday to stop selling negativity as a commodity and play its due role in making Pakistan a strong and prosperous nation.
Addressing the 4th national conference of South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA) here at Aiwan-e-Sadar, he said the Pakistan People’s Party decided to stay away from a media group to say enough was enough and taking that decision was its political right.
“It is a format of showing our displeasure,” he said adding the negative propaganda against his party had been going on for years. He said PPP did not take the route to dominate the media as others before it did. “We want you (media) to evolve and become strong,” he said adding media should also show the good that is happening in the country.
The president called for cohesiveness in policies and said in the past discontinuity of programmes made the country suffer greatly. “Too many cook spoil the broth. Growth of the country was stemmed because of lack of vision and abandoning of policies,” he added. He said Pakistan sent back home 1.8 million of its internally displaced people from Swat in months whereas people uprooted in countries like Afghanistan and Iran were still living landless and cultureless.
The people of Swat learned a lesson to not let the Taliban get back, he said adding the government gave political ownership to war on terror. “When you have no political ownership, you are the bad guys,” he remarked. The president said the government and people showed in places like Swat that they were fighting to save their way of life and they were not for hire soldiers or mercenaries.
