Govt promoting local culture, patriotic sentiments: Durrani
By Ali Imran

ISLAMABAD—Minister for Information and Broadcasting Muhammad Ali Durrani Monday said the government had a clear objective of promoting local culture and pro-Pakistan sentiment among the people, utilising all resources and talent in state-run media organisations in collobartion with the private media bodies.
He was addressing a meeting of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly on Information and Broadcasting, which was held under the chairpersonship of Rehana Aleem Mashhadi. The Minister said two new channels for current affairs programmes and parliamentary activities in the Parliament would be launched soon.
Durrani said the Ministry of Information has presented the project concept-1 of the Parliament Channel to Speaker National Assembly Ch. Ameer Hussain for final approval. “As soon as the Speaker National Assembly gives his approval the Parliament Channel would be launched at the earliest,” he said.
The Minister said new FM channels would be launched in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas to effectively project culture and national interest to the people. He said the Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) would extend its braodcasting to every nook and corner of the country with quality service and programmes. Durrani said out-dated machinery in the PBC would be replaced to provide quality service to the listeners all over the country.
The Minister said the state-run media organisations were planning to launch benefit programmes and welfare schemes for veteran artists who made a lot of contribution to the progress of radio and television. He said the ministry would ensure that programmes broadcast or telecast were compatible with “our culture and traditions and meet the required standard.” Durrani said: “We are proud to be Pakistanis and there is a need to project this image all over the world.”
The Minister said pro-active managment would harmonise commercialism with quality and produce a stuff on the PTV and PBC which would attract the attention of the people. PBC Director General Ashfaq Gondal while briefing the members of the Committee said that the PBC has currently 31 stations which were broadcasting news bulletins, talk shows and programmes on current affairs and entertainment. He informed the Committee that a total of 129 employees of the PBC have been promoted in accordance with rules and regulations.
Gondal said officers who were posted on deputation basis in the PBC would not get any extra salary or scale as they were regular employees of the Press Information Department. Answering a question from a member of the Committee he said Audition Committee has been constituted to re-examine the existing quality of voice among the artists and there would be no discrimination against any one. To another question he said out-dated machinery of the Hyderabad Radio Station would be replaced and radio service would beexpanded to cover the entire Sindh province.
He said two FM stations, on at Miranshah and the other at Parachinaar, would be launched soon and the ministry had agreed to release funds for these projects. PTV Managing Director Ashraf Azeem said the organization would not purchase privately-produced dramas and a committee has been constituted comprising senior writers to make recommendations on ways to regain the past standard in PTV dramas. Rehana Aleem Mashhadi urged the relevant authorities to utilise all resources to further raise the standard in state-run media organizations and effectively promote national culture and traditions.
The meeting was also attended by Additional Secretary Informaton, S. M. Yousaf, Prinicipal Information Officer Rashid Ahmad, Director News APP Liaquat Ali Toor and other officials.