Social values essential for society’s development: Sharjeel

Sindh Minister for Information, Mass Transit Sharjeel Inam Memon has said social values are essential for the progress and development of any society, but nowadays the trend of hurling abusive language is being promoted.

If this mindset is not halted, it would bring disastrous consequences to our society, he said while addressing a debating session titled 'Degrading Social Values and Role of Women in Society' at the Arts Council on Thursday.

The event was organised by the Pakistan Council of Media Women in collaboration with the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists and the Arts Council Pakistan, Karachi.

Memon said there were many reasons for the decline of social values in Pakistan. The institution of family or parents had the key role in bringing up children and it was the first school of learning for children.

He said children learnt a lot from first from home, school and the environment of friends. He added that due to hectic life, parents were unable to pay attention to their children. The information minister was of the view that many people took tremendous advantages from the use of technologies, but there were also certain disadvantages of it.

Our children spend most of time with technological gadgets, and characters and stories of social media, dramas, movies and video games affected their minds, he remarked and said that for better training of children, parents had to spare time for their children.

Memon said the role of government and media was very important for raising awareness of social values. Whenever the government licenses a TV channel or newspaper, the organisation be bound to rely and publish public awareness messages, he added.

He recalled that when a PPP member of the provincial assembly passed unwanted comments against a female MPA, the top leadership of the Pakistan Peoples Party took stern notice and asked him to apologise to the female member of parliament.

But now, he lamented, there was a competition of using abusive language and remarks in politics. He said that in rural areas below the belt remarks could cause rows among the communities and could even lead to murders, but unfortunately abusive language increased the ratings of television channels.

Memon said that we have to get out of this mindset and promote social values. If we do not stop this mindset, things will go a long way. On women empowerment, he said the PPP had always explored and provided opportunities to women in every field. It was the vision of the PPP to promote women participation in all spheres of life, including parliament, bureaucracy, businesses, and on the diplomatic front, he maintained.

President Asif Ali Zardari during power introduced Benazir Income Support Programme for Women to give them a leading role in running the affairs of the family unit, he noted. In Sindh, the minister said, landless women farmers were given 25 acres of agricultural land each. "We have not done any favour to women; this is their right. We have to give them their due status for the development of society.”

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 media on the occasion, Sharjeel Inam Memon said that May 25 was the worst day in the history of Pakistan, as Imran Khan had introduced his new party, and tigers were brought to the streets to demonstrate terrorism.

Khan's workers attacked police, set vehicles on fire and tortured media persons, he said, adding that the government and the police had shown a lot of patience, but these people continued to create chaos and anarchy in the country.

He termed the jihad of Khan only for coming to power from backdoor again, saying that the people of Karachi had rejected the narrative of Imran Niazi and given him no response the other day.