PPP assails Imran’s claim about media freedom
ISLAMABAD: The opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Saturday ridiculed the claim made by Prime Minister Imran Khan about independence of the media, alleging that the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government had left no stone unturned in controlling the media in the country.
Lashing out at the prime minister, PPP information secretary and MNA Shazia Marri said in a statement that Imran Khan had made another wrong statement regarding media freedom in the country.
The PPP leader issued the statement a day after the prime minister had said that his government had given unprecedented independence to the media, but it had problems with fake news propaganda as during the last three years 70 per cent news content was against the government.
The prime minister in his speech at the launching ceremony of the Digital Media Development Programme in Islamabad had said that his government was not affected by free judiciary and free media because it was not corrupt and was not breaking laws, adding that his government was the first to give complete independence to the media.
The prime minister, however, had said that during his three-year tenure, 70pc media content was against the government. He had said that media independence could be gauged from the fact that how many news programmes were pro-government and how many anti-government during the last three years.
Ms Marri said that Prime Minister Khan “who fooled the people by telling lies frequently, was now making the masses cry over the record inflation and unemployment in the country”.
Ms Marri said that a statement of the prime minister on “linking the Pakhtun people with the Taliban” was regrettable and his such statements were causing embarrassment for the nation globally.
She said that the people had been fed up with the “shocking and nonsense statements of the selected prime minister” and they were also screaming in agony and anguish over the growing rate of the unemployment and price hike of daily use items during Imran Khan’s three-year rule.
Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2021