Underlining the importance of modern education and research as the key to progress, Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) Information Secretary Ahsan Iqbal has exhorted the youth parliamentarians to "specialise in what others can't give."
Speaking at a seminar on Friday for youth parliamentarians organised by a local non-governmental organisation (NGO) on the topic "Changing nature of information," he highlighted the need to keep abreast with the knowledge age. "The world has become a knowledge society, and today's knowledge society says that what worked yesterday won't work today," he said.
Recalling his party's stance for the restoration of judiciary, Ahsan said integration of multiple forces and a united nation would ensure that "we win against evil designs. "Everybody was saying that restoration of judiciary is impossible, but we proved by restoring the judiciary to pre-November 3 position," he added. He said that through education only "we can bring revolution in the country and can make it corruption-free, ensure good governance, no crime against women and children and no terrorism.
"To compete with the world, we need to educate ourselves, otherwise trillions of dollars by the US will not change our fate," he said. Commenting on freedom of media and judiciary, he said that the media and judiciary had won freedom on its own and not due to any government.
"Now in Pakistan, nobody can suppress the freedom of media and independence of judiciary. Any wrong decision to curb them would be disastrous," he added. Ahsan said the freedom of press was very important, as media not only provided information to the people, but also nabbed many hidden issues. It was the media, which helped restoring democracy in the country after eight-year long dictatorial regime of General Pervez Musharraf (Retd).
Ahsan went on saying that media played an interactive role by forming public opinion and conveying it to the government. "A free media conveys the true picture of the society and enables people to form the right opinion," he said, adding that freedom of media also provided a check on the political parties.
He said that media had emerged as a stakeholder in the protection of state's interest and the promotion of democracy and it must equip itself to deal with the emerging realities that had an impact on the society and the citizens. He said that the media freedom guaranteed democracy. "Media is the eye and ear of governments and restrictions on media will be curbs on democracy and any move against media and judiciary will be disastrous," he added.
He said if the government was tolerant, media could play a pivotal role in nation-building, and added that curbs were placed on media during the world wars, and the wars in Vietnam and Iraq, however, it was the media's role in these conflict zones that led to the withdrawal of forces. He said that media was playing a pivotal role in the conflict areas and zones, and kept the government and the people informed of the real situation.