In its first formal meeting, National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage Tuesday was given a detailed briefing on the working of Ministry of Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage and its attached departments.
The meeting, chaired by MNA Marvi Memon, pledged to do legislative oversight of the affairs of the ministry to improve its performance further.
The Information Secretary Dr Nazir Saeed while giving a detailed overview informed the committee that the mission of the ministry and its attached departments including Press Information Department, External Publicity Wing, Internal Publicity Wing, Pakistan Television, Radio Pakistan and Associated Press of Pakistan, was to project the image of the true country.
Dr Nazir informed the committee that the ministry was scrutinising the central-media-list as Minister for Information Senator Pervez Rashid has advised to purge the list of dummy newspapers.
Member MNA Beelam Hasnain said there was need to reassess the role and performance of press attaches deputed in Pakistan missions abroad.
Talal Chaudhry was of the view that the committee should set goals for improvement in the working of the information ministry. He also suggested measures for delisting fake newspapers from the central-media-list.
Mariam Aurangzeb said that Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) should exert its role of an effective regulatory authority. She mentioned that foreign content was being shown on TV channels in violation of PEMRA code of conduct. In reply to this, the information secretary told the committee that two bills were being tabled in the Parliament soon to regulate the foreign content on the small screen.
Talking about cyber crime, Zeb Jaffar said that the ministry should play its role in fighting cyber crime in the country. In response, the committee was also informed that Cyber Wing of the ministry was combating the foreign media onslaught against Pakistan in an effective manner. However, the cyber crime was being dealt with by the Ministry of Information Technology.
Naeema Kishwer, said that in past Question Hour in the National Assembly was telecast live by the PTV but now it has been discontinued. Perveen Masood was of the view that the television channels especially PTV should start educational programmes for the children.
Information Services Academy Director General Muhammad Khalid Sarwar informed the committee that the academy organised training courses and workshops for journalists from far flung areas. In the recent past, it organised training workshops for journalists from Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Balochistan.
The committee also passed a resolution to pay tributes to the Father of the Nation Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and called for speeding up the ongoing work on restoration of Ziarat Residency as early as possible.
MNAs that attended the meeting included Beelam Hasnain, Amir Ali Shah Jamot, Talal Chaudhry,Arifa Khalid, Mariam Aurangzeb, Zeb Jaffar,Naeema Kishwar, Perveen Masood and Azhar Jadoon.
Besides the information secretary, senior officials of the Ministry of Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage and its affiliated departments were also present in the meeting.