KARACHI:Sindh Minister for Information Syed Nasir Hussain Shah has said that on the directives of Chairman Pakistan People’s Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah had launched People’s Media Support Program under which all kind of relevant support would be provided to the media.
The provincial minister said that payment of liabilities to media owners under PMSP had already been started. Without naming anyone, he said that some people had said a lot that they would come up with a media support program but they had not done so till date, adding that only the PPP government had made Media Support Program a reality.
Shah said that besides launching People’s Media Support Program, assurances had been taken from media owners for two things; one was that they would not fire their employees and the other was the timely payments of the salaries of the employees. Shah said that through People’s Media Support Program actually the media workers and working journalists had been provided with security of job as well as security of on time payments of salaries. He said that the process of legislation in this regard was also underway which would be completed soon. Syed Nasir Hussain Shah said that the Sindh government attached as much importance to working journalists or other media workers as it did to its medical professional including doctors, nurses and paramedical staff.
He said that Sindh government had never discriminated in this regard and had always considered people working in both the industries as front-line heroes in the time of pandemic. Shah said that freedom of media as well as welfare of working journalists had always been a priority in every PPP government. The provincial minister said that the present Sindh government was also with the journalists and all possible support would be provided to them.
“Like people associated with medical professionals, the Sindh government pays tribute to journalists for performing their duties in such difficult situations when we are facing a pandemic like the Coronavirus,” he added.