Sindh Minister for Information and Mass Transit Sharjeel Inam Memon has said that social values are essential for the progress and development of any society, but nowadays the trend of hurling abuse was being promoted.
Memon expresses these views while addressing a debating session on ‘Degrading Social Values and Role of Women in Society' at the Arts Council which was organized by the Pakistan Council of Media Women in collaboration with the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and Arts Council Pakistan Karachi.
“If this mindset is not halted, it would bring disastrous consequences for our society,” he said. “There were many reasons for the decline of social values in Pakistan. The institution of family or parents has a key role in bringing up the children and it is the first school of learning for children. Children learn a lot from first from home, school and the environment of friends.”
The provincial minister added that due to hectic life, parents were unable to pay attention to their children. He added that many people take tremendous advantages of technology, but there were also certain disadvantages of it.
“Our children spend most of their time with gadgets, (online) characters and stories of social media along with dramas, movies and video games. This affects the minds of children,” he said and added that parents have to spare time for their children for their better training.
Memon said that the role of government and media was important for raising awareness of social values.
“Whenever the government licenses a TV channel or newspaper, the organization should be bound to relay and publish public awareness messages,” he said. “When a PPP Member of Provincial Assembly passed unwanted comments against a female MPA, the top leadership of the party took stern notice and asked his party MPA to apologize. But, now there was a competition of using abusive language and passing remarks in politics which are not worth listening.”
In rural areas, he said, below the belt remarks could cause rows among the communities and even could lead to murder. But unfortunately, abusive language enhances the ratings of television channels
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“We have to get out of this mindset and promote social values. If we do not stop this mindset, things will go awry,” he warmed.
On women empowerment, Memon said that PPP had always explored and provided opportunities to women in every field.
“It is the vision of PPP to promote women's participation in all spheres of life, including parliament, bureaucracy, businesses, and on the diplomatic front. [former] president Asif Ali Zardari had introduced Benazir Income Support program for women to give them leading role in running the affairs family uni,” he said.
In Sindh, landless women farmers were given about 25 acres of agricultural land, he said adding that the party had not done this as a favour but, it was their right.
“We have to give them their due status for the development of society,” he said.
Senator Abdul Haseeb, President PFUJ G. M. Jamali, President Arts Council Ahmad Shah, Nargis Alvi, Shahida Sajjad, Amira Shahid, SP Shehla Qureshi and other eminent women also expressed their views on the subject while the session was moderated by President Pakistan Council of Media Women Humaira Motala.
Talking to the media on the occasion, Memon said Wednesday was the worst day in the history of Pakistan as former prime minister Imran Khan introduced his new party of ‘Tigers’ who were brought to the streets to demonstrate ‘terrorism’.
“Imran Khan's workers attacked police, set vehicles on fire and tortured the media persons,” the minister said.
“The government and the police had shown a lot of patience but these people continue to create chaos and anarchy in the country.”
He termed the jihad of Imran only for coming into power from the back door again.
“People of Karachi had rejected the Imran’s narrative and gave him no response the other day. If Imran Khan's culture was to prevail, then no one would be able to run governments in the country after the elections as the losing party would take their gang to Islamabad.”
In response to a question, he said that the PPP long march lasted for ten days and no unwanted incidents of throwing a stone or blocking roads, or attacking the police personnel had taken place as it was peaceful and purely political.
“PTI is no longer a political party. Its workers were instigated to resort to violence. If (his) political behaviour does not change, then there will be more damage in the country,” the ministers said.
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