“ No compromise will be made on the freedom of expression and no such incident will be tolerated in future”,said Kamil Ali Agha.

Zafar Ali Shah said that it was good that the government has already withdrawn the FIR against a news channel,but at the same time he asked the media to keep the national interest supreme while covering various incidents.

Farhatullah Babar said that the statement of the provincial information secretary and the Balochistan CM are contradictory.

Earlier Information Secretary Balochistan said that the FIR against the TV channel was not registered on the directives of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.However he said that law and order situation there was not normal and courts have time and again asked the administration to take action against those newspapers and news channels that glorify the terrorist activities. In this regard he mentioned a Balochistan High Court order.

Chairman Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) Chaudhry Rasheed said that the authority has not taken any discriminatory action against on particular TV channel but issued notices to all violating rules.

Agenda item about foreign content on local channels was deferred with a directive to PEMRA to present a comprehensive report of rules violations and the action taken against the violators within ten days.

About the PTV presentation on the appointments in the corporation the Chairman of the committee Kamil Ali Agha said that it was very unsatisfactory and asked Secretary information Dr Nazir Saeed that the ministry itself should provide a report on PTV.

Expressing its concern over the reports that the PTV has not taken part in the bidding to purchase rights of showing Pakistan cricket matches,the committee decided to summon the past two managing directors of the PTV and ask them how during their tenure the PTV used to telecast the matches live.
The meeting was attended by Senators Fahatullah Babar, Shirala Malik, Daud Achakzai, Saeeda Iqbal, Farha Aqil and Zafar Ali Shah.

Senior officials of the Information Ministry,PEMRA and PTV were also present in the meeting.

Associated Press of Pakistan

It was decided that the committee chairman, Kamil Ali Agha, would move it in the Senate as a multi-party bill on Thursday. “I will submit the draft of the bill before Senate Secretariat on Thursday,” said Mr Agha while talking to Dawn.

In reply to a question about addressing the defence ministry’s (MoD) reservations, Farhatullah Babar said the Senate could not wait for long for the ministry’s reply.

The MoD had asked the Senate’s sub-committee on information to keep the bill pending till further orders of the defence authorities.

Later it asked the committee to incorporate a condition in the draft making it mandatory on anyone seeking official information to get a No Objection Certificate (NOC).

The committee, however, rejected the defence ministry’s point of view and approved the draft of the freedom of information law.

Senator Babar said the committee waited quite long for a letter from the ministry and then decided to approve the draft.

Mr Agha said the bill would give media and the common man access to all types of information – be it secret, classified, confidential or simple.

“Each and every government department comes under the ambit of the bill and they will have to provide all kinds of information to people,” said Mr Agha.

He said although the bill was not media-specific, the media will have more access to information than a common man.

Mr Agha said decisions of the government would be placed on websites. “Even appointments of officials and their perks and privileges will be placed on the website,” he said.

Under the law, government officials will provide information within 20 days or else a complaint may be lodged against him/her which will be decided by the head of the relevant department in next 20 days.

Asked about action against officials for non-compliance, he said the bill has proposed punishment to official/s for not providing the required information. “We also suggested punishment in this regard in the bill,” he added.

Pervaiz Rasheed, the minister for information and broadcasting, said the government believed in consensus and took decision after taking on board all stakeholders and cited the example of a similar bill adopted by the Punjab cabinet before the dissolution of assemblies.

The committee finally decided that the bill would be moved by its chairman Kamil Ali Agha on a private members day as a multi-party bill.

Later, the government will own the bill and present it in the cabinet for approval.

FIR AGAINST A PRIVATE TV CHANNEL: The committee condemned the registration of an FIR against a private television channel and decided to summon the Balochistan information secretary to record his statement on the unfortunate incident. The information minister told the committee that Balochistan Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik had informed the court that the case was registered on the orders of the Supreme Court.

DAWN