ISLAMABAD – Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry FawadHussain said on Wednesday that a new media regulatory authority will beconstituted soon to look after the electronic, print and social mediasimultaneously.

Talking to media persons outside Parliament, Fawad Hussain said that afterconsultations with media persons, Pakistan Media RegulatoryAuthority (PMRA) would be constituted.He said under the new authority Pakistan Electronic Media RegulatoryAuthority, looking after electronic media, and Press Council of Pakistan,looking after printmedia will be merged. He said the merger would help save nationalresources, it would be a world class entity consisting ofprofessionals and also representatives from media.

Commenting upon the oppositions’ boycott of Senate proceedings, he said itwas an non-serious act as millions of rupees fromnational exchequer are spent on proceedings of house. The minister said thatthose who termed the parliament as bogus and fake were now strangely seekingvotes for presidential elections.

Fawad said that keeping in mind the importance of the Parliament, PrimeMinister Imran Khan attended its first session after assuming office.He said that PTV-National would be converted toPTV Politics which would give live coverage of proceedings of theParliament, provincialassemblies and standing committees. Through live coverage, the masses wouldseethemselves what their public representatives were doing in the electedhouses, heremarked.

He said that the Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz boycotted the proceedings asthe PTI members had sought the details of the publicmoney spent on advertisement campaigns in the recent past. He opined thattheprevious government was being run on the basis of self-projectingadvertisementcampaigns.

He said that the present government has imposed ban on advertisementcampaigns projecting personalities. He said a committee has beenconstituted for formulation of official advertisements policy to avoid suchwastage of national wealth in future.He said that PTV has been given editorial independence and it was givingmore coverage to opposition than the private media.

He said that Aitzaz Ahsan was a senior and respected politician but PTI’sArif Alvi was set to win presidential elections with clear majority.

Answering another question he said that every body knows that PrimeMinister Imran Khan was not protocol-loving person but the state has totake some measures to ensure security of its chief executive. He clarifiedthatthe Prime Minister was using helicopter to avoid expenditures onsecurity vehiclesin his cavalcade and save the people from inconvenience during hismovement on the roads. – APP