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Pemra (Amendment) Bill 2008

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ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting on Thursday cleared the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory (Amendment) Bill, 2008 clause-by-clause and forwarded it to the National Assembly for final approval.

The committee meeting was held in the Parliament House under the chairmanship of MNA Belum Hasnain, to consider the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory (Amendment) Bill, 2008.Minister for Information and Broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira informed the committee that in order to redress complaints of civil society against any aspect of broadcast media, councils of complaints have been constituted.

These councils in all four provinces and one at federal capital consist of prominent citizens, nominated by the federal government, one as chairperson, and five other members, including two women.

The minister further said a committee comprising seven prominent journalists, law experts and other intellectuals to chalk out a code of conduct has also been formed. The committee is proposed to be headed by Justice (retd) Fakharuddin G. Ibrahim.

This committee will prescribe the code of conduct for programmes and advertisements, lay down technical standards for the broadcast and distribution services. The committee members expressed their reservations about some news reports and current affairs programmes aired by private TV channels, stating that programmes shown over the several private TV channels are not in conformity with the culture, traditions and ethics of the country.

The members unanimously proposed that committee may meet with owners of the

private TV channels, anchor persons and TV artists to realise them the grave situation emerging out of the objectionable dramas, advertisements and their affects on the society.

The meeting was attended by Chaudhry Saeed Iqbal, Pir Syed Fazal Ali Shah, Syed Amir Ali Shah Jeelani, Farzana Raja, Mir Amer Ali Khan Magsi, Mrs Samina Mushtaq Pugganwala, Begum Nuzhat Sadiq, Shireen Arshad Khan, Shahzada Muhiuddin, Sahibzada Muhammad Mahboob Sultan, Mrs Bushra Rehman, Farhat Muhammad Khan, Istiqbal Khan.

End.