Sindh Assembly condemns desecration of Holy Quran in Norway

Lawmakers urge the Centre to take up the matter with the Norwegian govt

KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly unanimously passed on Wednesday a resolution to denounce the desecration of the Holy Quran in Norway.

The session, which started over an hour past its scheduled time, did not take any of the items on the agenda. It did, however, take up the resolution, jointly moved by the Pakistan Peoples Party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal and the Tehreek Labbaik Pakistan, to condemn the act of desecration of the Holy Quran in Norway.

As the lawmakers took turns to speak on the issue, they urged the federal government to take up the matter with the Norwegian government.

As many as eight lawmakers spoke on the issue for around 50 minutes.

Pakistan conveys ‘deep concern’ to Norway over desecration of Holy Quran

Question and answers

Meanwhile, though the assembly did not take up any items on the agenda, Sindh Information, Archives and Labour Minister Saeed Ghani responded to four starred questions, while the lawmakers asked 14 supplementary questions as well.

Responding to a question, Ghani brushed aside the impression that the provincial government is issuing advertisements to only a specific media group and clarified that the Sindh Information and Archive Department is issuing advertisements to all newspapers, in accordance with the Advertisement Policy, 2015. He said that the impression is "absolutely baseless."

Ghani apprised the assembly members that in all, 737 newspapers and magazines are being published in Sindh at present. Of these, 446 newspapers and magazines are published in Urdu and 156 in Sindhi language, he said.

He further said that there are more than 750 newspapers on the department's media list and "it is not possible to issue advertisements to all these newspapers daily," adding that the information department, however, tries to issue advertisements to all the publications every day, particularly to small and regional newspapers and magazines. This is to ensure that the publication of these newspapers and magazines is not halted, Ghani added.

In response to another question, Ghani said that while the advertisements are issued directly to the print media by the information department, advertisements for electronic media are released via advertising agencies, which also design the advertisements, due to lack of resources. He said the government has a clear policy regarding the issuance of advertisements via a third party, elaborating further that the 15% of the total amount paid for an advertisement goes to the advertising agency and the remaining 85% to the media house.  In addition, he said that the deputy commissioners have the authority to issue or cancel the declaration of a newspaper, not the information department. Moreover, certification of the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) and the approval for inclusion in the media list is granted by the federal government, he said.

In response to another question, he said that no one, apart from eight persons belonging to the families of the deceased employees of the information department, was employed in the department during the period between July 2017 and June 2018.

The information minister also dispelled the impression that the Directorate of Archives has not been paying salaries to its employees, saying that they are paid on time.

Addressing the issue of dummy newspapers, the information minister informed the assembly members that action is being taken against them and letters seeking the cancellation of 74 dummy newspapers have been sent to relevant deputy commissioners.

Pakistan decides to raise sacrilege issue at OIC, EU

He also informed the assembly that the second installment of payments [for advertisements] will not be paid to media houses that have failed to pay their employees. The provincial minister pointed towards a rising trend of sacking journalists and withholding their salaries over the past seven to eight months, holding the "federal government's failed economic polices" responsible for the crisis. Expressing grief over the demise of SM Irfan, a reporter who used to work for a private media house, he stressed that media houses ensure timely payment of salaries to their employees.

Concluding the session, Ghani said that it is imperative to mention that since 2016, when the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) launched an investigation against the information department, payments to media houses have suffered delays, which has landed them in a financial crunch.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 28^th, 2019.