Zardari wants draft RTI law presented in parliament

Calls for ending impunity for crimes against journalists

ISLAMABAD: PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday urged the government to bring the draft Right to Information [RTI] law - agreed upon by all political parties - before parliament.

Through a statement on the World Press Freedom Day, Zardari also called for ending impunity for crimes against journalists.

“I urge all state organs to bring to justice the perpetrators of crimes against journalists and to set up credible mechanisms to ensure their protection,” he said.



“There is a systematic erosion of freedom of expression in the name of ideology and national security,” he said and added that crimes against media-persons are being committed with impunity.

The PPP leader said that his party stands by the journalists in their struggle to achieve twin objectives - right to freedom of expression and ending impunity for crimes against them.

He stressed the need for freedom of expression and articulation of pluralistic ideas in a genuinely democratic manner for the flowering of societies.

Unfortunately, he continued, the freedom of expression has come under attack by the state in the name of national security and by the non-state actors in the name of ideology. “This indeed is the challenge of post-9/11 world that must be addressed urgently,” he insisted.



According to the former president, free flow of information and ideas empower citizens. “When information flow is obstructed the citizen is disempowered,” he said.

He paid tribute to all those journalists who braved the odds while performing their duties under difficult and dangerous conditions.