ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan has urged private channels to not broadcast indecent programmes in the name of Ramazan transmission.

He was responding to a question in the National Assembly during Question Hour. He said PEMRA monitors contents of about fifty-five private channels to check that they are not involved in obscenity, anti-Islamic teachings, and institutions of the country.

He said government is not against private channels to earn money, but they should take care of Pakistani culture and Islamic traditions in their content.

He said state channels like PTV has always kept showcasing of Pakistani culture and promoting Islamic traditions supreme.

He said complete monitoring and evaluation of the content shown on PTV is ensured. He said efforts are being made to convert three channels of PTV to High Definition.

Responding to a question, Minister of State for Climate Change Zartaj Gul said the government is going to prohibit single use plastic bags in the federal capital by 14th August this year.

She said her ministry distributed cotton bags among Parliamentarians and journalists as an alternative to plastic bags.

She said five thousand cotton bags have been distributed amongst employees of the federal government and more are being procured for distribution in weekly Bazars and other markets free of cost.

Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan informed the House that PIA has launched new routes like Sialkot-Sharjah, Lahore-Muscat, Islamabad-Doha and Lahore-Bangkok, Kuala lampur, Sialkot-Paris-Barcelona, Peshawar-Sharjah, Peshawar-AlAin and Multan-Sharjah.

He said PIA is also increasing frequencies and capacity on profitable routes like Jeddah and Madinah especially from Faisalabad.

To a question, Parliamentary Secretary for Federal Education and Professional Training Wajiha Akram said 1, 65,413 scholarships have been awarded to students across Pakistan in last five years.

She said fee reimbursement scheme is being extended to over 114 districts.