Our correspondent
ATTOCK: The member national assembly from Attock Shiekh Aftab Ahmed vowed to bring back the journalist community their press club building back which has been under illegal occupation of the district administration since long besides assuring the journalist fraternity of resolution of all their issues. He made this assurance to a delegation of the journalist community led by Patron in Chief Attock Press club registered at his residence on Friday. Mr Naqvi has informed the step-motherly attitude of the district administration towards the journalist community of the Attock as the press club was registered in 1993 under the societies registration act 1860. He said that the district council through a resolution has allotted the building to press club in 1986 and the same has been illegally occupied by district administration since 2012 without any amended resolution by the district council as well as written order. He added that furniture and fixtures which were utilized by the journalists’ community are rusting to dust due to apathy and indifferent attitude of the officials concerned. On this occasion, Mr Ahmed assured the delegation to play his pivotal role in addressing the grievances of the journalist community and made all out efforts to retrieve the press club building from the district administration and handed it over to the journalist community in an honorable manner without further delay. On this occasion, Sheikh Aftab also hailed the positive and effective role of the Attock press club for the democratic process. He also assured that the journalists community of Attock district would be provided with the best possible protection against unwarranted actions under the PECA ordinance and other related laws.
He was of the view that the PML-N government believes in freedom of the press and would leave no stone unturned to provide a conducive environment to the journalist community so that they performed their professional responsibilities without any fear and hindrance. Sheikh Aftab said that “our Government strongly believes in upholding freedom of the press and is taking all necessary steps to provide a safe working environment to local journalists working in districts to facilitate them in the performance of their professional obligations”. He said he would continue his interactions with journalists and media persons.#
