ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Senate Standing Committee on Information Broadcasting and Heritage held its 4th meeting under the Committee Chairman Senator Faisal Javed Khan in Islamabad on Tuesday.
The meeting was also attended by the Secretary Information and the PTV Management.
The Committee Chairman raised the issue of biased coverage given to disqualified Prime Minster Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz. The Chairman demanded a detailed report on the expenses regarding the use of equipment, crew, fuel, human resource, DSNGs and total airing minute used in order to give coverage to Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz.
Senator Faisal Javed said that public money cannot be wasted for the marketing of a disqualified prime minister and his daughter.
The Chairman also questioned if the Minister of Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb or the Secretary Information would pay for these expenses from their pockets.
Furthermore, the Committee also raised the issue of pending pensions of PTV Employees that are due since April 2016. In response to this the PTV Management promised that the funds worth 700Million will be released before Eid. Moreover the Committee also discussed on forming a mechanism is order to make PTV a neutral outlet with equal coverage given to the government and opposition.
Lastly, the Committee once again demanded the PTV Management to present a report on the coverage ratio of news bulletin and live coverage for past one year.
