The Zainab Alert Bill included: Senate body seeks members' cooperation to sail through important bills

The Senate Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting on Wednesday sought cooperation of members to sail important bills through the Senate, including the Zainab Alert Bill, which have been pending in the Upper House of the Parliament.

The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Senator Faisal Javed Khan in which the committee urged media to play its role in spreading the message regarding child abuse, which is a recurring phenomenon in society at present and needs immediate and coordinated attention. The committee suggested that public service messages with continuity should be prepared and run on PTV as well as private channels to bring this information in the notice of the people and also to create deterrence.

It was informed that an authority named "ZARA" will be established after passage of the Zainab Alert Bill to overcome exploitation and abuse of children.

The chairman committee said that an awareness campaign on media will be launched to sensitize the people on this important social issue. Similar bills will be presented in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies soon, he added.

The committee discussed in detail the matter of revamping of PTV network. The matters of importance of public service messages, effective use of PTV Parliament, maintenance of archives by PTV and launching digital media platforms at a wide scale were also discussed. The committee also highlighted the issues of unavailability of PTV Sports in certain areas, lack of graphic quality and unchecked standards of advertisements.

The matter of non-payment of salaries to working journalists by many private media houses for the last many months was discussed in the House and referred to the committee for consideration and reporting back to the House.

The committee recommended that Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) should revisit its laws and suggest to the committee what amendments are needed in order to make a mechanism that licenses of private media are linked with timely payment of salaries and proper service agreements and service structures.

The committee recommended the government to link payment of upcoming government campaigns to private media houses with payment of all pending payments to staff.

The special assistant told the committee that a total of Rs 870 million have already been paid to media houses in pending payments and Rs 990 million are pending. The committee directed that this payment should be linked to payment of pending salaries of journalists.