ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting on Wednesday sought a report of the TV channels that are running a “malicious” media campaign.

The committee meeting was held under the chairpersonship of MNA Javairia Zafar Aheer.

The committee strongly condemned the malicious media campaign regarding the recent visit of the parliamentary delegation to Canada for the 65th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference led by the speaker.

The chairperson of the Standing Committee directed the chairman PEMRA to appear in the next meeting with the report of the TV channels running the media campaign.

The committee rejected, “The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2021” (moved by Uzma Riaz, MNA) due to the non-availability of the mover.

The committee also deferred the bills, “The Motion Pictures (Amendment) Bill, 2020 (Government Bill)”; “The Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2020 (Government Bill)”, and “The Associated Press of Pakistan Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2020 (Government Bill)” till its next meeting.

The committee formed a sub-committee under the convenership of Naz Baloch, MNA to discuss "The Indecent Advertisement Prohibition (Amendment) Bill, 2022” (moved by Muhammad Jamalud Din, MNA) and the calling attention notice No 29 regarding “increasing obscenity on TV channels” (moved by Moulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali, MNA and other MNAs).

The meeting was attended by MNAs,Armaghan Subhani, Nadeem Abbas, Zaib Jaffar, Maiza Hameed, Kiran Imran Dar, Zulfiqar Ali Behan, and Naz Baloch, and movers, Muhammad Jamalud Din, MNA and Moulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali, MNA besides, the senior officers of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and its attached departments.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022