Islamabad: (Parliament Times) Principal Information Officer (PIO) at the press Information Department Shahera Shahid has reiterated the federal government’s commitment to restore 25% fixed quota for regional newspapers.
Ms Shahid who is also a spokesperson of the central government made these assertions while holding talks with Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the media organizations comprised of representatives from Rawalpindi Islamabad Bureaus Journalist Association (RIBJA) and Rawalpindi Islamabad Union of Journalists. Besides members of the JAC the negotiating meeting was attended by former PFUJ President Afzal Butt, RIUJ President and Chairman Joint Action Committee Amir Sajjad Syed, RIUJ General Secretary Asif Ali Bhatti, Rabja Presidents Sardar Shaukat Mehmood and Nisar Ahmed.
The meeting that lasted for an hour held threadbare discussion on the written demands, which were put forth by journalist bodies soon after postponement of the protest held outside the Prime Minister’s House on Eid-ul-Fitr.
Speaking on the occasion the PIO said that the Government was cognizant of the fact that regional newspapers were an important source of information for the people living in remote areas.
She said that federal government was committed to restore the 25% quota soon and final decision in this regard would be made by the end of this week. “The reports in this regard have been received from all regions of Pakistan except Lahore”, she added.
Representatives of media organizations at the meeting suggested that the government should immediately announce “Prime Minister’s Corona Package” to improve the financial condition of media houses and journalists across the country.
They demanded that all media organizations should be given advance payments for the next three months in the form of advertisements. The payment they said should be made directly in the salary accounts of journalists and media workers so that they can come out of the current economic crisis.
RIUJ stressed the need for starting Corona relief program for journalists at federal level. Referring to the recent initiatives taken by Punjab and KP government they said, “Punjab and KP government is paying Rs. 100,000 each for the treatment of journalists affected by corona and Rs. 1 million to the family of the deceased journalist”.
While assuring the implementation of the RIUJ’s proposal to conduct corona tests for all journalists in the twin cities the PIO agreed to seek a formal approval from the federal government. She said that in the first phase, more than Rs 400 million was paid to the media houses before Eid on the condition that the workers would be paid on time. She, however, maintained that despite written promises and assurances, the demand was not met.
“Complaints of payment have been received, so it was decided to immediately ask for the details of the non-paying companies and after verification, future advertisements of these companies will be stopped”, she said adding that that special package for press clubs across the country has been approved by the Cabinet.
Meanwhile, a meeting of the Joint Action Committee was held to work out the future strategies. The meeting was attended by senior members of RIUJ and RIBJA including Ejaz Abbasi, Shaukat Satti, Asif Malik, Chaudhry Qurban, Shamim Ara, Farooq Ahmed, Chaudhry Fayyaz, Chaudhry Waheed Rasool, Naeem Qureshi, Doreez Kayani, Raja Riaz, Naveed Malik, Syed Nusrat Abbas and others.