State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib said on Saturday that the PTI government would complete its constitutional term of five years and on the basis of its best performance and public service, it will again come into power by winning public support in the next general election.
He expressed these views while talking to the media after addressing the inaugural session of an interactive learning training workshop on ‘Changing Roles, Challenges & Opportunities in Digital Media Age’ organized by National Press Trust (NPT) at a local hotel.
Responding to reporters’ queries, he said that another deadline of 48 hours given by Maulana Fazlur Rehman and company to the government had once again met an ultimate failure. Under the garb of the PDM, Maulana had earlier betrayed Maryam Safdar and this time, he would cheat Shahbaz Sharif.
The PML-N had also not fulfilled its commitment made to people regarding the return of Nawaz Sharif from London. The unnatural alliance of the PDM had failed to meet its commitments and tall claims of toppling the elected government, he maintained.
The parties, which never had unanimity of ideology/views and had never
got on the same page and remained different with each others throughout
their politics, were once again making failed attempts to forge a united
move of no confidence against the government, he said and mentioned that
Prime Minister Imran Khan had said that when he get his hands on these
looters and plunderers of the country, they will get together just to
save their corruption and looted public money, and they were afraid of
accountability.
To a question, he said that Bilawal’s long march turned into a short
march in Sahiwal and public meeting at Minar-e-Pakistan would prove his
popularity and worth among people.
Farrukh Habib said the PDM had failed badly as it had no productive
agenda for people and the country. He said that ‘Daily Mail’ also
exposed the PML-N’s corruption and proofs strongly suggested that the
Sharif family was involved in corruption.
Earlier addressing the NPT workshop, Farrukh Habib remarked that since
media dynamics were fast changing and digital media was emerging as
means of communications following synergy of all mediums. Keeping these
factors in view, he added that the government had established a digital
media studio in Karachi and such studios would also be set up in press
clubs of all other major cities of the country, adding that the first
state-of-the-art ‘Media University’ will soon be established in
Pakistan.
He said that the government believed in freedom of expression but the
fake news hurt national interest, arguing that fake news sabotages
national interest and many trends were being run from outside the
country and some insensible elements had become a part of this game
without considering the national interest.
He mentioned that Cyber Crimes Wing had received 94,000 complaints
regarding social media, while 750 websites were pointed out which were
part of anti-Pakistan propaganda.
The state minister said that digital media had a responsible role to
combat fake news and there must be a regulatory authority in place,
asserting that the government was taking all out measures to save the
interests of working journalists.
He said that last year, the digital media was awarded advertisements
worth over Rs 25 billion as most of the news readers switched over to
this media and today, around 120 million people in Pakistan were using
4G technology through mobile phones which impact positively on social
media.
Farrukh Habib said that Pakistan had always rendered sacrifices in war
against terrorism and suffered loss of US $ 150 billion to its economy,
adding that Pakistan was playing its due and active role for peace in
Afghanistan.
