Sharjeel assigned information department portfolio for third time

Senior Sindh minister Sharjeel Inam Memon has again been assigned the portfolio of the provincial information department. The information portfolio had been lying unassigned since the forming of the Sindh government of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) after the February 8 general elections in the country.

Sindh Chief Secretary Asif Hyder Shah on Monday issued the notification of granting the additional portfolio to Memon. Apart from holding the information portfolio, Memon is senior minister for transport & mass transit and excise, taxation & narcotics control.

Memon had also served as information minister in the previous Sindh governments of the PPP, and had emphatically presented the case of the provincial government and the party on various issues of public importance in his frequent media presence.

While appearing on talk shows of private TV news channels and at press conferences, he always vocally defended the provincial government and the PPP’s performance in governing Sindh.

Meanwhile, the Karachi Press Club (KPC) and various representative bodies of journalists in the city welcomed the reappointment of Memon as the information minister of Sindh.

A statement quoted KPC President Saeed Sarbazi and Secretary Shoaib Ahmed as saying that Memon is a dynamic politician and public representative who had played his due role in resolving the issues of the press club and working journalists.

The KPC office-bearers hoped that the information department under Memon would ensure the freedom of expression in the province, and strengthen the ties between the provincial government and mass media.

They hoped that steps would be taken to protect the interests of the media, and to ensure media development in the province in the new ministerial tenure of Memon.

They appreciated the minister’s efforts for increasing the annual grant of the KPC, and hoped that this grant would be increased in the current year.

They also hoped that Memon would take cognisance of the crisis that emerged due to the non-payment of salaries to the staff of different media organisations. They also hoped that he would join hands with the KPC to resolve the pressing issues of working journalists.

APNS statement

Nazafreen Saigol Lakhani, president of the All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS),and Sarmad Ali, secretary general of the All Pakistan Newspapers Society, have congratulated Sharjeel Inam Memon on his induction as Sindh’s information minister for the third consecutive term and hoped that under his stewardship the relations of the provincial government with the print media will be further strengthened and the pending issues of newspapers industry relating to timely payment of outstanding dues and allocation of due share of the print media in the advertising budget will be amicably addressed.

The APNS office-bearers appreciated the efforts put in by Mr Memon in his last tenure to solve the problems faced by the print media and assured him of their complete support in his endeavours to introduce transparency in the distribution of advertisements to the media, said a statement issued by Dr Tanvir Ahmed Tahir, executive director of the APNS,

on Monday.