Govt To Extend Full Support To Media In Its Pivotal Role Of Promoting Democracy, Good Governance, Awareness Creation: Prime Minister Imran Khan

Prime Minister Imran Khan Tuesday said that as media had a pivotal role in promotion of democracy, good governance, ensuring transparency and merit as well as creating awareness among the masses, the government would extend its full support to media in that respect.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 16th Oct, 2018 ) :Prime Minister Imran Khan Tuesday said that as media had a pivotal role in promotion of democracy, good governance, ensuring transparency and merit as well as creating awareness among the masses, the government would extend its full support to media in that respect.

He said media had played an important role in conveying the ideology of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to the masses and making it a success. "If media would not have been there, I would not have been here (on this position). We will fully support media," he remarked.

The prime minister expressed these views during a meeting with the delegation of All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) here.

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, Special Assistant to PM on Media Iftikhar Durrani, Senator Faisal Javed and Secretary Information Shafqat Jalil were also in the meeting.

The APNS delegation felicitated Imran Khan on being elected as the prime minister and apprised him of the problems faced by the newspaper industry.

The prime minister said a strategy was being formulated for the payment of arrears of media, pending since the previous governments, so that the problems of newspaper industry could be resolved.

The prime minister said that the PTI had attained this position after a struggle of 22 years, adding it had come to power due to its political efforts and with the support of masses.

"When I entered the politics, my struggle was not against the politicians but mafias.

I know which party has evolved in which nursery. The PTI has not grown in any incubation center," he remarked.

The prime minister said that no political party in Pakistan's history had struggled as much as the PTI had.

He said Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who achieved his objective through continued struggle and democratic means, was his ideal in politics.

The prime minister said his political competition was with those who were criminals and calling them democrats was the insult of democracy.

He said not a single case of political victimization was registered during the previous PTI tenure in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Whereas, the Prime Minister said, over 30 cases were made against him during the previous government's tenure including eight in the Election Commission and two in the Supreme Court.

Imran Khan said that due to highlighting the Panama papers issue, he had to face character assassination and for that purpose women were used.

The prime minister while making a political comparison of provinces said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which was earlier famed for not giving the mandate again to any political party, honored PTI with the two-thirds mandate in 2018 election.

He said as the PTI was a democratic party its government did not make any intervention in the recent bye-elections in Punjab.

The prime minister said after the 2013 election, he had demanded to open only four Constituencies and continued to strive for that purpose for a year, but the then government did not open them.