National Assembly Body Asks Interior Ministry To Submit Details Of FIRs, Complaints Lodge Against Journalists In ICT, Provinces

National Assembly's Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting on Thursday directed Ministry of Interior to collect details of First Information Reports (FIRs)and complaints lodged against journalists and media persons from all the provinces and Islamabad Capital Territory and provide the same before the next meeting of the committee

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Aug, 2021 ) :National Assembly's Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting on Thursday directed Ministry of Interior to collect details of First Information Reports (FIRs)and complaints lodged against journalists and media persons from all the provinces and Islamabad Capital Territory and provide the same before the next meeting of the committee.

The meeting, chaired by Javed Latif, discussed the issue in detail, whereas it also and asked the Islamabad Police, Cyber Wing of Federal Investigation Agency and NADRA involved in the investigation process of attacks on journalists to hold a joint meeting to speed up the progress and submit the report.

Later, the committee decided that Minister of Interior Sheikh Rashid should attend the next meeting on the issue of murders attacks and registration of FIRs against senior journalists.

The committee was informed that the Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Chaudhry Fawad could not attend the meeting due to his engagements in connection with launching of government's three years performance report later in the day. However, he would be available for the next meeting of the committee to be held next Thursday.

At the start of the meeting, Javed Latif said so far there was no substantial progress in the cases related to attacks in journalists in the federal capital.

While briefing regarding attack on former Chairman PEMRA Absar Alam and journalist Asad Toor, the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) (Operations), Islamabad apprised that report on the said issue had already been submitted to National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) for Geo Fencing, DNA matching and Forensic report etc., adding a reminder has also been sent to expedite the process.

Chairman NADRA informed that the authority has only received the record about Asad Toor from the police department which was not clear.

He also informed that NADRA has no mandate in the matters of geo fencing and DNA which were subjects of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and Punjab Forensic Science Agency (PFSA), respectively. The committee directed the Federal Secretary, Ministry of Interior to have a meeting with D.G (FIA), Inspector General of Police (ICT), Chairman (NADRA) and authorities of PFSA and submit report to the standing committee in its next meeting.

Member National Assembly Nasir Khan Musazai said such issues should be discussed in the courts and the committee should focus on legislation work, adding, laws should also be improved. However, Nafeesa Shah and Maryam Aurangzeb said the committee had the oversight right and it could ask the concerned departments to provide a progress report on cases related to journalists' community.

Javeria Zafar said the government wanted to strengthen the national institutions and it was the responsibility of the government to provide protection to media persons.

Mariyum Aurangzeb demanded that the draft law of Pakistan Media Development Authority (PDMA) should be provided to the members before the next meeting so that they could study it in time.

Secretary Information and Broadcasting, Shahera Shahid said the draft was sent to the Ministry of Law for its input, however, a copy of its concept paper and 14 important points would be provided to members. Tahir Iqbal, Member National Assembly said the democracy was not getting roots in Pakistan as political parties had no democratic culture and they were being run like family businesses.

During the discussion on the murder of journalist Aziz Memon, Additional Inspector General of Police, Special Branch (Sindh), briefed the committee about latest Joint Investigation Report (JIT). He informed that during initial investigation, the investigation officer after postmortem, nominated accused Awais Qureshi and completed legal formalities of the case. On expiry of the stipulated period, interim challan of the case was submitted by Inspector Shuhab Akbar Kolachi.

After that, on the request of complaints, JIT was constituted by the Home Department Government of Sindh Karachi under the Chairmanship of the Addl. IGP Karachi Region; four session/meeting of said JIT were held, during which, exhumation and re-postmortem was conducted, samples were taken for necessary tests / reports.

The DNA test of 88 suspects were also conducted, out of which the DNA of suspect Nazeer S/O Bangul Khan Sahito was matched.

On the basis of DNA Test report, it came on the surface that accused Nazeer s/o Bangul Khan Sahito was the donor of traces/human epithelial remains while the other DNA was identified on Nails of deceased Aziz Memon S/o Adam Khan Memon.

The committee appreciated the efforts of Sindh Police and deferred the agenda till its next meeting.

The Committee deferred the Government Bills, namely, The Motion Picture (Amendment) Bill, 2020, The Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2020, The Pakistan Associated Press of Pakistan Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2020 and a Private Member Bill, The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulator Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2020 (moved by Ms. Uzma Riaz, MNA) and Calling Attention Notice No. 29 regarding increasing obscenity on tv channels (moved by Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali and other MNAs) till next meeting.

The meeting was attended by MNAs Naz Baloch, Mariyum Aurangzeb, Aftab Jehangir, Tahir Iqbal, Nadeem Abbes, Syma Nadeem, Nafeesa Shah, Maiza Hameed, Javeria Zafar, Saad Waseem, Zulfiqar Behan, and Usman Tarakai. Journalists Hamid Mir, Absar Alam, Asad Toor, Asma Sherazi and Asif Bashir Chaudhry also attended the meeting.

Besides Secretary Information Shahera Shahid, senior officers of the ministry and the attached departments were also present in the meeting.