PAKISTAN: Assemblies and LBs part of same system: Shujaat pledges press freedom

Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain said on Saturday that local governments, and national and provincial assemblies were different tiers of the same democratic system

Dawn
Sunday, July 11, 2004

ISLAMABAD, July 10: Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain said on Saturday that local governments, and national and provincial assemblies were different tiers of the same democratic system.

"The impression that parliamentarians are not in favour of the district government system is not correct," he said while addressing a national convention of the press clubs organized by the Devolution Trust for Community Empowerment.

He said the local government system was introduced in 2001 and the masses had fully participated in it. After the 2002 general elections, he added, some circles suggested that the newly-elected members of the assemblies were not supportive of the local government system.

"This is a misperception," said the prime minister and added that in fact the local government system and the national and provincial assemblies were different tiers of the same democratic system.

He said that no changes were being made in the defamation law. However, he added, a law would be enacted under which strict action would be taken against those levelling baseless allegations against innocent people.

The prime minister said the government believed in the freedom of the press and was committed to provide all facilities to journalists.

He told the information minister to ensure that the 7th Wage Award issue was resolved as early as possible. He directed the minister to present the matter before the cabinet on Monday.

When Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said it would not be possible for him to do so in the absence of the information secretary, who was abroad, the premier said the summary could be sent to the cabinet through the additional secretary.

Chaudhry Shujaat called for a judicious distribution of advertisements to newspapers. He said he had directed all the departments and corporations of the federal government to release advertisements to small and regional newspapers as well.

He said the federal and the Sindh government departments had been told to issue employment advertisements to the Sindhi language newspapers to help provide job opportunities to the youth of the province.

Chaudhry Shujaat said all the corporations had been directed to provide jobs to the sons and daughters of the journalist community.

He said he did not believe in hollow slogans and was committed to resolve people's problems.

He announced Rs50,000 each for all the press clubs and said he had told Information Technology Minister Owais Leghari to provide computers and internet facilities to the press clubs.

Speaking on the occasion earlier, the information minister assured the journalists that the government would resolve the wage award issue on a priority basis.

Date Posted: 7/11/2004