Those who passed no-trust motion had mandate of 70pc Pakistan, says Ghani

It occurred first time in the history of the country that a no-confidence move was initiated in the National Assembly by the concerned political parties that possessed a mandate of up to 70 per cent populace of the country.

Sindh Information and Labour Minister Saeed Ghani said this on Thursday while meeting a delegation of the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE). The meeting took into consideration the national political situation, newly-formed federal government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the next general elections in the country.

Ghani said the political parties opposing the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf had opted for a constitutional and democratic method to send an ineligible and inefficient government packing that had also violated the Constitution.

The Sindh information minister said the Pakistan Peoples Party had always taken steps to ensure the welfare and well-being of journalists and provision of all the required facilities to the media institutions.

Ghani said the Sindh government had made sure that almost all the newspapers and private TV channels received dues against the publication of government advertisements. He mentioned that Sindh Information Secretary Abdul Rasheed Solangi had himself been visiting offices of different private TV channels and newspapers to get firsthand information about their problems.

CPNE General Secretary Aamir Mahmood informed the provincial information minister that hundreds of thousands of rupees were still payable by the government on the account of the unbudgeted advertisements.

He said it was their desire that more transparency should be ensured in the mechanism of the Sindh information department to distribute advertisements among the media houses. He urged Ghani to take due steps to make sure that the government advertisements were issued to all the newspapers and other media outlets.

He added that the CPNE believed that the government should not publish its advertisements in the newspapers that failed to pay salaries to their staffers on a timely basis. He said that a transparent mechanism should be developed for the release of the government advertisements and payments of their dues without the involvement of any middleman.

Ghani asked the information secretary to take steps on an urgent basis to make sure that the government advertisements were also available on the internet. He said that disputed claims regarding payment of dues related to the government advertisements should be settled within one week after consulting representatives of both advertisers and media houses.