The National Assembly Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting unanimously passed "The Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2019".

The committee meeting was held with Nadeem Abbas, MNA in the chair here on Friday where "The Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2019", moved by Amjad Ali Khan, MNA, were discussed. According to the objective of the bill, it would give powers to the relevant ministry to frame rules concerning its departments.

After thorough discussion "The Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2019" was passed unanimously. The committee strongly condemned the "economic killing" of journalists as it had been reported that 66 journalists had been removed from their services, who were working in an Islamabad-based newspaper.

The committee directed that Ministry of Information and Broadcasting may take stringent measures to safeguard the interests of the media persons and provide complete detail of the said issue in next meeting of the committee.

The committee appreciated the performance of Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) however, directed that Ministry of Information and Broadcasting may take effective measures to improve the service structure of the APP employees, and also ensure their equal representation in all cities of Pakistan.

The committee directed that Shalimar Recording Company may take stringent measures to enhance the performance of its media channel in order to compete with private channels and telecast new programmes instead of repeating the old ones.

The meeting was attended by Engr Usman Khan Tarakai, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Nasir Khan Musazai, Muhammad Akram, Aftab Jahangir, Syed Aminul Haque, Zulfiqar Ali Behan, MNA, Javeria Zafar Aheer, Maiza Hameed, Nafisa Shah, Syma Nadeem, MNA, Kanwal Shauzab, Amjad Ali Khan, mover of the bill and officials of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and its attached departments.