Islamabad, (Parliament Times) : A meeting of the Rawalpindi/Islamabad Bureau Journalists Association was held under the chairmanship of President Sardar Shahid at the Press Club Islamabad. The meeting was inaugurated by General Secretary Syed Asif Ali Hamdani. RIBJA President Sardar Shahid, while expressing his views, said that the government should immediately withdraw the draft to publish government advertisements in Balochistan through BPPRA.
Print media is the backbone of democracy. The importance of local newspapers can not be underestimated. The livelihood of thousands of families is dependent on them. The economic murder of the local newspaper industry in Balochistan should be stopped because newspapers at the local level are playing an important role in highlighting public and provincial issues and identifying irregularities within government and non-government institutions.
Therefore, the old system should be restored and thousands of families should be brought out of the economic crisis. Government advertisements should be distributed according to the previous method. Separate funds should be allocated for digital media in Balochistan on a federal basis. RIBJA expressed solidarity with the Balochistan Newspaper Action Committee. Senior journalist Qurban Sati strongly condemned the ban on Balochistan regional/local newspapers.
The Balochistan government was warned that Balochistan was already facing numerous problems. Local newspapers are playing an important role in exposing corruption and public issues in every sector at the provincial level. Instead of banning them, the implementation of the allocated government advertisement quota should be ensured. It was unanimously decided in the meeting that full solidarity will be shown with the Balochistan Newspaper Industry Action Committee.
All of RIBJA’s colleagues protested, demanding that print media be promoted and a separate budget be allocated for social media.
The meeting was attended by founder RIBJA Qurban Satti, president Sardar Shahid, general secretary Syed Asif Ali Hamdani, finance secretary Haji Abdul Aziz, former presidents Rana Zahid Hussain, Nisar Ahmed, Javed Iqbal Chaudhry, vice presidents Shamim, Kashmir information secretary Faiza Shah Kazmi, Hanif Abid, senior journalists Dr. Abdul Wadood Qureshi, Naveed Sheikh, Sardar Fayyaz, Sagheer Ahmed, Muhammad Shafiq Chaudhry, Raja Faisal, Muhammad Ayaz Astori, Sardar Fayyaz, Sardar Liaquat Khan, Muhammad Ishtiaq, Raja Bashir Usmani, Muhammad Rafiq, Gulzar Khan, Asif Mahmood, Mosaddeq Hussain, Eid Muhammad, Azmat Khan, Ammar, Muhammad Salim, Yasir Janjua, Nazir Ahmed, Ashfaq Jamil Khan, Akbar Ahmed and others.