Islamabad; March 28, 2018: The Standing Committee on Information, Broadcasting, National History and Literary Heritage met under the chairmanship of Pir Muhammad Aslam Bodla, MNA in Islamabad.

The Committee expressed its concern on the telecast of baseless and misleading irresponsible reporting in hourly news bulletin on Jaag TV regarding members of the National Assembly. The Committee directed PEMRA to assert its regulatory role to discourage such irresponsible and baseless news reports which causes disrepute to the Members of the National Assembly. The Committee stressed upon the Media Houses to check the veracity of the news before its telecast.

The Committee while discussing the issue of missing paintings of renowned painters from Pakistan National Council of Arts (PNCA), directed Director General (PNCA) to devise a mechanism to avoid such instances in future. The Committee was apprised that 104 paintings were reported missing in the year 2015. Taking cognizance of the issue the Board of Governors of PNCA directed for a probe by Committee constituted under Director General, Cyber Wing of the Ministry. Later the BoG directed for referring the inquiry repot along with its recommendations to the Federal Investigation Agency for further probe and legal action which was still pending with the FIA. The Committee expressed its concern on the delay in finalization of the probe and decided to invite Director General (FIA) in its next meeting to get an update on the issue.

The Committee unanimously decided not to recommend “The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2017” moved by Dr. Fouzia Hameed, MNA for passage by the Assembly since the existing defamation law and PEMRA code of conduct were affectively catering the amendment proposed by the Mover.

While discussing the agreement of airtime of Shalimar Recording and Broadcasting Company (SRBC), the Committee directed the Ministry to ensure transparency while awarding the contract. The Committee was apprised that the agreement with the company currently holding the airtime of SRBC was expiring in August, 2018 and the process for inviting bids for the new agreement would be initiated shortly and direction of the Committee in that regard would be complied.

 The meeting was attended by MNAs; Malik Shakir Bashir Awan, Mr. Muhammad Khan Daha, Mian Muhammad Farooq, Mr. Tahir Iqbal Ch., Ms. Zeb Jaffar, Ms. Parveen Masood Bhatti, Ch. Muhammad Tufail, Mr. Imran Zafar Leghari, Ms. Belum Hasnain, Dr. Muhammad Azhar Khan Jadoon, Malik Muhammad Aamir Dogar, Ms. Naeema Kishwer Khan, Additional Secretary, Information and Broadcasting Division and heads of the concerned departments.