She said continuity of democracy for ten years was historic milestone and in the next general election Pakistan Muslim League (N) would win with a heavy majority by taking vote on basis of its performance. She said under the visionary stewardship of Nawaz Sharif and Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, the present government carried out unprecedented work in five years, which was not done in the last 66 years.
She underlined the need for democratic review of all the laws, rules and regulations related to media, adding the laws made in the eras of dictatorship should be amended to bring them in line with democratic norms and standards. The minister said it was highly unfortunate that there was an unannounced censorship on electronic and print media.
She informed that Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had increased rates for government advertisements by 15 percent and increased the period for ABC certification to three years and five years for registration certification while before that a news organization had to apply for registration certification every year. The step was taken so that Ministry of Information play role of a facilitator and not of a regulator.
She recalled that a delegation of APNS met Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and suggested that advertisements should be linked with Consumer Price Index (CPI) so that rates of advertisements should be increased according to CPI, adding a committee had been formed to look into the matter.
She congratulated APNS for maintaining the tradition of holding the event and the recipients who won the awards on the basis of their performance and for upholding high standards of their profession. She said it was a good step to acknowledge the services of journalists and advertising agencies.
She said during her tenure as Minister for Information, she received full cooperation of APNS, CPNE, press clubs, journalists associations and senior journalists and in a short span of time the Ministry of Information took a number of significant steps to facilitate the growth of free and independent media.
The minister told that a major success of the present government was the Right to Information Law and work on its rules and formation of Information Commission was underway. The law was a great success as no such legislation existed ever before. The most vital need of journalists was to get verified news and the new law would make it possible for them to get authentic information through a defined process.
She emphasized that the most important aspect of freedom of media was that, journalism was practiced with responsibility and the news was presented with all its original and objective details as it will fortify Pakistan and democracy.
Dilating upon the role of media in the elections, she said media would have a critical contribution in conduct of fair and transparent general elections in July.