Pervaiz asks media to keep national interest supreme

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Pervaiz Rashid on Monday called for an effective liaison and coordination between the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) and the Ministry of Information to ensure dissemination of authentic information.
He said effective liaison and cooperation was also vital to dispelling any misleading perception with regards to the military operation. He asked the Principal Information Officer to establish a crisis communication cell and a 24-hour help line in PID to extend support to IDPs.
Senator Rashid expressed these views while chairing a high-level meeting here. Information Secretary Dr Nazir Saeed, DG ISPR Major General Asim Saleem Bajwa and other senior officials of the ministry attended it. The minister urged the media to demonstrate a streak of nationalism to counter the extremist narrative as terrorists were enemies of Pakistan. He appealed to the media to keep national interest supreme and show great deal of responsibility while covering the operation in North Waziristan Agency.
“Our brave soldiers are sacrificing their today to secure our tomorrow,” the minister remarked referring to the anti-terrorism campaign. He expressed his firm resolve to fight the terrorists and said the operation would continue till terrorists were eliminated.
The minister said, “under the directions of Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, our armed forces are fighting a war to protect the integrity and security of the State and the entire nation must provide full support to them to ensure the defeat of the enemy”. “As a democratic government, we opted for the strategy of dialogue but lack of sincerity and hypocrisy on the part of other side disrupted the whole process. They continued their terror attacks in spite of talks and also denied the responsibility for these attacks,” he said.
Online adds: Pervaiz Rashid said that the government has decided to take media into confidence regarding operation against terrorism and electronic and print media will be briefed separately.
Pervaiz Rashid said under the circumstance the operation has became indispensable therefore the government decided to take media into confidence and the PM will meet responsible people of electronic and print media soon. He said we hope that media will become reflector of public hopes; the challengers of government writ will soon meet their end.