‘Sindh planning to provide health cover to journalists’

Sindh Information Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah has said the provincial government was formulating a plan to provide health cards to working journalists, while also assuring assistance for resolving other issues faced by media personnel.

He was speaking at an Iftar reception hosted by the Sindh Information Department at the Karachi Press Club on Wednesday.

“I have also requested Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah to provide the press club with a Rs25 million annual grant,” Shah added.

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Sindh President Nisar Khuhro, former PPP Sindh advisor Maula Bux Chandio, Karachi Press Club General Secretary Maqsood Yousufi and senior journalist AH Khanzada also spoke on the event.

The provincial minister thanked journalists for cooperating with the democratic institutions.

He added that the government would resolve the issue of plots supposed to be allocated to members of the press club.

Khuhro, while speaking on the occasion, criticised Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his government for “running Pakistan like their personal property”.

But the PPP would not let them loot and plunder the country’s resources, he added.

“Nawaz Sharif used to complain about mosquitoes in Landhi jail, but does not realise what he did to Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and how she used to move from pillar to post to get justice for herself and her husband,” the PPP parliamentary leader said.

Former advisor Maula Bux Chandio predicted more embarrassment and suffering for the “Sharif dynasty” in the days to come.

“Now even his own brother, nephew and federal ministers have declined to defend him in public.”

Speaking of the load-shedding crisis in
Sindh, Chandio said the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government used to criticise the PPP for not resolving
the power crisis, but the PML-N had worsened the situation.

“People are fed up of their hollow claims. Why don’t they clear the infamous circular debt which they used to put on the PPP government for causing the power crisis in the country?” he asked, adding that people would not let the government off the hook because of the “the worst power crisis in the history of Pakistan".

KPC Secretary General Maqsood Yousufi said
the press club believed in promoting democratic
 norms and values in society. He hoped that the provincial government would continue to support the journalist community.