The spokesman of the Prime Minister’s House on Sunday strongly condemned a news story published in a section of press imputing a “false statement” to the prime minister that “he will not present first class president before a third class magistrate”. The spokesman said the prime minister did not utter any such remark during his recent visit to Lahore where he met a cross section of society, including editors of the national dailies, lawyers and parliamentarians. The spokesman said such news story was not only false but also malicious and seemed to have been sponsored by those who were bent upon creating mistrust between the institutions with a view to undermine democracy. He said a complete record of prime minister’s talk with national dailies editors followed by questions and answers session was available and anyone could verify what the PM had exactly stated. The spokesman called upon newspapers representative bodies like APNS (All Pakistan Newspapers Society), CPNE (Council of Pakistan Newspapers Editors) and Press Council of Pakistan to investigate this blatant mischief by a news agency and take appropriate action in the matter. He said the government had the right to take action but refrained from doing so, hoping that newspaper representative bodies and champions of media freedom would look into it and take appropriate action.
