Minister for Information and Broadcasting Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on Wednesday urged the media to play its role in further strengthening relations between Pakistan and Malaysia. He was talking to a visiting delegation of senior media-persons from Malaysia here at the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Secretary Information and Broadcasting Shahid Rafi was also present.
Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said media enjoyed full liberty in the country and the government has been pursuing the policy to encourage media in private sector as around 850 newspapers and periodicals all from private sector were being published from various parts of country. Besides, he said at present 15 television channels were on air while other 37 would soon start their function. All those channels were in the private sector and Pakistan might be the only example in the world that has allowed cross-media ownership. He said that around 80 FM channels in the private sector have also been accorded approval to start their operations in parts of the country. He said government has also accorded approval for setting up of Direct to Home (DTH) services, two of them were in the private sector.
He further pointed out that Pakistan and Malaysia have been enjoying brotherly relations and they were co-operating in a number fields with special regard to exchange of news through APP and Barnama news agencies of each other's country. He said PTV was telecasting a co-production of drama serial. That serial was produced in collaboration with the Malaysian private concerns, whereby Miss Malaysia was playing an important role.
The media chiefs including Principal Information Officer Akram Shaheedi, APP Managing Director Fazal ur Rehman Malik, PTV Managing Director Arshad Khan, PBC Director General Tarique Imam, Director General External Publicity Wing A S Abasy, and Director General Internal Publicity Wing Muhammad Ashfaq Gondal briefed the delegation about the working of their respective organisations.
The delegation was impressed with the liberal policies being followed by the government of Pakistan towards media, and thanked for sponsoring their good will visit to Pakistan.
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