LAHORE: On Saturday, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib said that the PTI government would complete its constitutional term of five years and on the basis of its best performance and public service, it will again come into power by winning public support in the next general election.
He expressed these views while talking to the media after addressing the inaugural session of an interactive learning training workshop on ‘Changing Roles, Challenges & Opportunities in Digital Media Age’ organized by the National Press Trust (NPT) at a local hotel.
He said that another deadline of 48 hours given by Maulana Fazlur Rehman and company to the government had once again met an ultimate failure. Under the garb of the PDM, Maulana had earlier betrayed Maryam Safdar and this time, he would cheat Shahbaz Sharif.
The PML-N had also not fulfilled its commitment made to people regarding the return of Nawaz Sharif from London. The unnatural alliance of the PDM had failed to meet its commitments and tall claims of toppling the elected government, he maintained.
The parties, which never had unanimity of ideology/views and had never got on the same page and remained different with each other throughout their politics, were once again making failed attempts to forge a united move of no confidence against the government, he said and mentioned that Prime Minister Imran Khan had said that when he gets his hands on these looters and plunderers of the country, they will get together just to save their corruption and looted public money, and they were afraid of accountability.
He said that Bilawal’s long march turned into a short march in Sahiwal and public meetings at Minar-e-Pakistan would prove his popularity and worth among people. Farrukh Habib said the PDM had failed badly as it had no productive agenda for people and the country.
He said that ‘Daily Mail’ also exposed the PML-N’s corruption and proofs strongly suggested that the Sharif family was involved in corruption. Earlier addressing the NPT workshop, Farrukh Habib remarked that since media dynamics were fast-changing and digital media was emerging as means of communications following synergy of all mediums.
Keeping these factors in view, he added that the government had established a digital media studio in Karachi and such studios would also be set up in press clubs of all other major cities of the country, adding that the first state-of-the-art ‘Media University’ will soon be established in Pakistan.
He said that the government believed in freedom of expression but the fake news hurt national interest, arguing that fake news sabotages national interest and many trends were being run from outside the country and some insensible elements had become a part of this game without considering the national interest.
He mentioned that Cyber Crimes Wing had received 94,000 complaints regarding social media, while 750 websites were pointed out which were part of anti-Pakistan propaganda. The state minister said that digital media had a responsible role to combat fake news and there must be a regulatory authority in place, asserting that the government was taking all-out measures to save the interests of working journalists.
He said that last year, the digital media was awarded advertisements worth over Rs 25 billion as most of the news readers switched over to this media and today, around 120 million people in Pakistan were using 4G technology through mobile phones which impact positively on social media. Farrukh Habib said that Pakistan had always rendered sacrifices in the war against terrorism and suffered the loss of US $ 150 billion to its economy, adding that Pakistan was playing its due and active role for peace in Afghanistan.
