ISLAMABAD: Senate Standing Committee on Information Chairman Senator Faisal Javed of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Tuesday expressed reservations over not sharing the Pakistan Media Development Authority (PMDA) draft with the parliamentary committee, despite asking for it repeatedly.

The Committee members irrespective of their party affiliations expressed annoyance at the Minister of State Farrukh Habib and Secretary Information Shahera Shahid as they briefed over the importance of the PMDA.

The members including the chairman of the committee announced that the said bill will be rejected, if the Committee was not convinced.

The chairman of the committee told the secretary information that the bill will be rejected, "If you cannot convince us."

The members of the committee also inquired from the secretary information, why such an authority was needed?

"Can the rights of working journalists be protected after this Authority is established?"

Farrukh Habib informed the committee that bills were introduced in the House and forwarded to the Committee, but the government was discussing the PMDA bill in the committee, and with the stakeholders including various journalists' bodies and various press clubs, too, have been consulted.

He added that the National Assembly Standing Committee on Information has also been briefed in this regard.

"There were many misunderstandings regarding this bill," the state minister said, adding that there were no corporal punishments in this bill; however, some penalties have been introduced in the bill," he added.

Habib said that "fake news" was a serious problem in the current era that needed to be tackled.

He said the purpose of establishing the authority was to tackle "fake news", hiring journalists without any contracts, non-payment of salaries by some media houses etc were some of the key focus area in the bill.

He added that Rs50 million has been paid to print media and there were no arrears of electronic media pending with the government.

The secretary information said that there was no head of Implementation Tribunal for Newspapers Employees (ITNE) since March 2021 and an interim head was being appointed now.

Senator Irfan Siddiqui said to the state minister that the journalists were suffering as there was no head of ITNE for six months, and yet the government claims to be sympathetic towards media.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021