RAWALPINDI, Dec 2: The federal information secretary, Anwar Mehmood, on Sunday dispelled the impression that the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had been provided facilities at airports to screen suspected passengers.

“Such misreporting is regrettable”, he said while talking to journalists at the oath-taking ceremony of the newly-elected office-bearers of the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Press Club.

The secretary said, under an agreement last year, the US was to train Pakistani immigration staff on the use of some new equipment being installed at the airports. Under that agreement now, a US team has arrived to install ‘passport-readable machinery’ at the airports and train the immigration officials in this regard.

He said no airport screening contract had been given to the FBI as reported in some newspapers. He also contradicted the new item that British troops had landed in Pakistan. Reiterating the government’s stand, he said cooperation with the coalition forces was only in three areas - information sharing, logistics support and use of airstrips. This support is in the nation’s interest and it continues even today, he added.

Mr Mehmood said Pakistan was an independent and sovereign country and it knew how to protect its interests. He said the government believed in the freedom of press and unhindered flow of information. Whatever happens will be put before the nation, he added.

He stressed the journalist community not to forget the responsibility that came with the freedom of expression. The government has also given much freedom to the electronic media and all discussion — political and others — are openly aired and politicians of different mind-set are given equal opportunity to express their views.

In response to the Press Club president’s demand to struggle for the implementation of the 7th Wage Board Award, the information secretary said he did his best to bring the newspaper owners and the wage board judge to a negotiating table to reach an understanding.

Some hurdles, he said had come in the implementation of the wage board decision, as the owners alleged that it was not in accordance with the agreement reached between them and the judge. He hoped these impediments would be removed and the award implemented shortly.

Speaking on the occasion, the principal information officer, Ashfaq Gondal, said the freedom enjoyed by the press at present was unprecedented.

Responding to the Press Club president’s demand for establishment of a welfare fund for journalists, he said the journalist community itself should establish such a fund and the government would also contribute its share.

Earlier, the Club’s president, Mohammad Nawaz Raza, in his welcome speech, demanded of the government to implement the 7th Wage Board Award. “The award has been announced and now it is the part of the law.”

He urged the information secretary to play his role in this regard.

He also urged the government to stop providing advertisements to all such newspapers that didn’t accept the wage board’s decision.