Islamabad; 3rd July, 2019: Meeting of the Standing Committee on Information, Broadcasting, National History & Literary Heritage was held in Conference Room of PEMRA, Islamabad this afternoon with Mian Javed Latif, in the Chair.

Ø    The Committee recorded protest over the non-issuance of Production Orders of Mr. Asif Ali Zardari and Khawaja Saad Rafique under Rule 108 of Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly 2007. The Committee deemed it a clear violation of rule and recommended that if the Government is reluctant to release the production orders, amendment may be brought in the existing rules.

Ø    The Committee expressed its grave concern over the issue of non-payment of salaries to the media persons and directed that M/o Information, Broadcasting, National History & Literary Heritage may present the draft of new policy formulated to remove lacuna’s to streamline the services of media persons so that Committee could finalize it in-consultation with all stake holders.

Ø    The Committee criticize the media policy of the Government and directed that Ministry may provide complete detail of amount released to different private channels during the last six months and report to the Committee in its next meeting.

Ø    Earlier, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Information, Broadcasting, National History & Literary Heritage briefly apprised the Committee about the efforts taken by them to safeguard the interest of the media persons and problems faced by them in this regard.

Ø    The meeting was attended by Engr. Usman Khan Tarakai, MNA, Mr. Muhammad Akram Cheema, MNA Mr. Aftab Jahangir, MNA Ms. Javaria Zafar Aheer, Ms. Syma Nadeem, MNA, Ms. Kanwal Shauzab, MNA Syed Amin-ul-Haque, MNA, Ms. Marriyum Aurangzeb, MNA Ms. Maiza Hameed, MNA, Dr. Nafisa Shah, MNA, Ms. Naz Baloch, MNA and Officials of M/o Information, Broadcasting, National History & Literary Heritage, and representatives of media Unions.