ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage Senator Pervaiz Rashid Tuesday said that media would continue to play a supportive role for making Pakistan a peaceful and secure country.
He said the media was playing a proactive role in fight against terrorism and extremism.Its role was very supportive and positive in creating awareness against the extremist forces disrupting peace and tranquility of our society.
The minister was addressing the relaunching ceremony of Safer Charity Giving Practices campaign at a function organized by the Ministry of Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage to brief senior journalists about its initiative to create awareness about safer charity giving practices.
He said with the ongoing operation Zarb-e-Azb against the enemies of Pakistan, the role of media in this war had increased manifold. Under the National Action Plan, a number of accounts being used to funnel cash to terrorist networks, were closed.
He said that out of Rs 200 billion annual charity given by the people of Pakistan, around 30 to 35 per cent was taken away by banned and dubious outfits, which used the same against the people or to fund their nefarious designs.
The minister said that different government institutions were discharging their responsibility to check the financing for banned organizations. However, it was also the duty of senior journalists, anchor persons, writers and columnists to guide the common people on this issue through their write-ups and programmes.
He said it was a national obligation to convey the message to the common people at large that during Ramazan and immediately afterwards they should give charities with utmost care and in accordance with the Islamic guidelines.
Pervaiz Rashid further said,"Our close relatives and the poor in our neighborhood need our help the most and the donations can also be given to improve the public facilities in our surroundings like schools, dispensaries, playgrounds for the poor children.
He also said that those poor people who became handicapped in bomb blasts or those families whose earning member was killed in any blast also need our attention while giving charities.
He said that the Ministry had relaunched the Safer Charity Giving Practices campaign titled "Haq Haqdar Tak" which would continue during Ramazan on the official media and urged the private media to join hands in this national cause.
Earlier the media persons were informed in a briefing that the public awareness campaign "Haq Haqdar Tak", has been relaunched with expectation from the media networks to support this initiative and run stories and news packages on the campaign as public service.
The senior media persons were also informed that the ministry through its research project has conducted a nationwide research-survey on the subject of charity giving practices in Pakistan and guidelines in this regard would be shared with media houses for promotion in their programmes.
They were also informed that the ,inistry's other campaign "Pur Azm Pakistan" had the prime objective to increase public resilience against terrorism and extremism by documenting the tragedies of victims of terrorism and their determination to come back to life.
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