NA panel summons Aurat March stakeholders

Pakistan could only progress by empowering woman in all spheres of life through all possible means: Firdous Ashiq Awan

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting on Monday decided to hear representatives of Aurat March and Haya March as well as media owners.

The decision was taken in an emergency meeting convened to discuss some of the slogans raised by the marches deemed objectionable during International Women’s Day.

Javed Latif chaired the meeting while the attendees included Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Firdous Ashiq Awan, Members of National Assembly Engineer Usman Khan Tarakai, Tahir Iqbal, Aftab Jahangir, Kanwal Shauzab, Syed Amin-ul-Haque, Zulfiqar Ali Behan, Syma Nadeem and officials of information ministry.

The adviser noted the government did not take sides in the whole affair and praised the media for responsible journalism while covering Aurat March.

However, she regretted that the social media acted irresponsibly.

“Pakistan could only progress by empowering woman in all spheres of life through all possible means. However, the controversial jingles could harm the cause of women march,” said Awan

The government was committed to safeguard the women's rights through legislation and its implementation in the society, she added.

She suggested the committee that the Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) chairman should be summoned to brief the committee on measures to prevent controversial postings on social platforms.

“Balance needs to be maintained between two extreme views through legislation and regulation,” said Awan said.

The committee expressed concerns over not adhering to Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority's (PEMRA) code of conduct by the private channels.

It, therefore, decided to invite media owners in the next meeting to devise a strategy regarding elimination of negative elements from the media contents so that soft image of Pakistan could be presented to the world.