ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said on Tuesday that his party would stand by journalists and continue to struggle against the injustices being committed by the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever your economic policy, it is the responsibility of the government to provide financial security to the public by ensuring jobs for them,\u201d he said while talking to the media during his visit to a protest camp set up by the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ)-Afzal Butt group outside Parliament House.<\/p>\n

Mr Bhutto-Zardari said that as an opposition party the PPP would continue to raise its voice against \u201cnon-serious and unjust\u201d policies of the government.<\/p>\n

Says govt involved in \u2018economic murder\u2019 of media workers; MQM team also visits protest camp<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe request you to support us,\u201d he urged media personnel. \u201cYour issues are our issues \u2014 all your issues are our issues. Whenever there has been injustice with media persons, the PPP has stood with them,\u201d he said, reca\u00adlling his mother Benazir Bhutto\u2019s frequent visits to press clubs and interaction with journalists.<\/p>\n

Whenever they faced censorship, Benazir Bhutto extended support to the media, he said. Now the media was facing censorship as well as financial woes, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government must provide relief to the people because they [the leadership of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf] have made tall promises of generating 10 million jobs. Not only media persons, but people belonging to other professions have also started suffering due to flawed policies of the government,\u201d the PPP chairman said. \u201cWherever we go, we meet people protesting against the government.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that even government employees were protesting against the policies of the new government.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government does not have to take any major step [to raise funds to provide relief to the people] as they are taking foreign loans. They have even presented a budget but they fail whenever it is a matter of relief for the general public.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are various options and several ways [to provide relief to people] but\u2026 the government has no intention of taking care of the working and middle classes and protect their interests,\u201d Mr Bilawal-Bhutto said.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThe finance minister only issues statements that he wants to seek input from the opposition [on different issues] but he does not even meet us. They are doing only what they want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

He lambasted the PTI government policies, saying the \u201cflag-bearers of change\u201d had already dropped an \u2018inflation bomb\u2019 on the people in the form of a \u201cmini-budget\u201d and were now involved in \u201ceconomic murder of journalists and media workers\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said that the PPP had long-standing relations with the journalist fraternity. \u201cWhenever there has been any injustice in this country, the PPP and the journalists have launched a joint struggle against it whether it was the martial law of General Zia or the military regime of Gen Pervaiz Musharraf,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

MQM visit<\/strong><\/p>\n

A delegation of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), including MNA Iqbal Muhammad Khan, also visited the protest camp and expressed solidarity with the journalists.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the occasion, Afzal Butt, the president of his own faction of the PFUJ, said the objective of the protest was to voice the grievances of the journalist fraternity and not to launch any movement against the government.<\/p>\n

He asked the government to intervene and stop \u201clarge-scale downsizing\u201d in media houses, which had badly affected the families of the journalists and media workers.<\/p>\n

Dawn<\/a><\/p>\n

Related Story<\/strong><\/p>\n

Business Recorder:\u00a0Bilawal asks government to ensure job security of media workers<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said on Tuesday that his party would stand by journalists and continue to struggle against the injustices being committed by the government. “Whatever your economic policy, it is the responsibility of the government to provide financial security to the public by ensuring jobs for them,” he said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9,21],"tags":[550,123,3038,231,3348],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7156"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7156\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}