ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting members criticised the Wikileaks website saying its reports about Muslim countries was a part of a conspiracy to create rifts among Muslim states.
“The leaders of Pakistan are being ridiculed and the people behind WikiLeaks are creating misunderstandings among Muslim states”, Pakistan People’s Party member National Assembly Mir Amer Ali Khan Magsi said at the meeting of the NA body held on Tuesday.
He said the credibility of WikiLeaks must be examined and the Ministry of Information must come up with a plan to tackle its propaganda. Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting Chairman and PPP MNA Beelum Hasnain said that the leaks were unfortunate and the government should respond to it because it had grave implications for Pakistan’s foreign policy.
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Secretary Mansoor Suhail told the committee that the laws of Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) allowed Pakistani private TV channels to telecast 10 percent foreign contents. PPP MNA Farzana Raja said that such laws are against the national interests.
The secretary added that principle of reciprocity had not been taken into account in the process of making such laws as no Pakistani programme could be telecast in India.
PML-Nawaz MNA Rana Nazir said that every TV channel was being paid for telecasting Voice of America contents and there should be laws to regulate the foreign programmes.
