Govt to ensure security of media persons: Khursheed Shah

ISLAMABAD: Chief Whip of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Syed Khursheed Shah on Friday assured the Parliament that the government will provide full protection to those media persons of private TV channel who were receiving threats after Karachi firing incident. Giving assurance to the house after token boycott of journalists from press gallery of the parliament, Syed Khursheed Shah said that every possible protection will be given to the concerned media persons who were present at time of incident and took footage.

On the occasion, Deputy Speaker National Assembly Faisal Karim Kundi said that some media persons have also apprised him about the threats received by the media persons of a private tv channel and directed the chief whip of PPP to ensure their security.

Earlier, journalists from press galleries of both houses of the parliament staged a token boycott and demanded of the government to provide security to media persons who were receiving threats.

They also demanded to trace those unknown telephone numbers and asked to ensure the House regarding security of concerned media persons included cameraman Abdul Salaam and anchor person Zahid Khokhar. They said that a Quetta based journalist Jamal Tarakai who took footage of Kharotabad is also receiving threats.

On the directions of chairs of both houses, Senator Jahangir Badar from Senate while Imtiaz Safdar Wariach and Riaz Hussain Pirzada from National Assembly met with the media persons and assured them to raise their concerns in the house. On their assurance media persons called off their token strike.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011