Parliament to help remove injustice, MPs assure Jang-Geo Group
ISLAMABAD: Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and parliamentary leaders of both the houses of parliament — the National Assembly and Senate — on Monday promised that parliament will suggest a proper action against the injustices being meted out to the Geo-Jang Group.
This assurance came when a delegation of senior members of the Geo-Jang Group met the parliamentary parties leaders, headed by Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, and discussed the closure of Geo News and its other channels with them.
The parliamentary leaders included Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, MQM parliamentary leader in the Senate Babar Khan Ghauri, parliamentary leader of Jamaat-e-Islami Sahibzada Tariqullah, President PML-Zia Ijazul Haq, parliamentary leader of Fata Group GG Jamal, parliamentary leader of PML-F Sardar Ghaus Bukhsh Mehr, ANP parliamentary leader Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, Federal Minister Mian Riaz Hussain Pirzada, Chaudhry Barjees Tahir, Murtaza Jatoi, Aftab Ahmed Sheikh, Maulana Muhammad Khan Sherani of JUI-F and Mansoor Sohail of MQM.
Bureau Chief Geo News Islamabad Rana Jawad, senior anchorperson Salim Safi, Bureau Chief of Jang Islamabad Tahir Khalil and senior reporters of Geo News Asif Bhatti and Arshad Waheed Chaudhry represented the Jang-Geo Group.The parliamentary leaders were requested to intervene into the Geo News issue and form a parliamentary committee to probe as to why Geo News was being victimised.
The parliamentary leaders were told that 80 percent of the transmission of Geo News and its other channels had been facing closure for the last four months while Geo News was being kept at the last number on the cable due to which only 20 percent transmission was available to the viewers.
They said the Supreme Court, Lahore High Court and Sindh High Court had given verdicts in favour of the channel and directed Pemra to restore all Geo channels to their original numbers. “We have filed many complaints to Pemra but all our efforts remained inconclusive, so it’s necessary that such kind of acts should not be repeated against any other media house,” the Geo-Jang Group representatives said.
They said the Jang and Geo Group had repeatedly requested the parliamentarians to form a parliamentary committee to probe as to why this attitude was being adopted towards Geo.
“Even our offices were stoned, journalists were threatened, Jang and The News are being burnt and staff members as well as journalists are being harassed,” they told the parliamentary leaders.
Speaker National assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and parliamentary leaders of both the houses of parliament assured that parliament will suggest a proper action to remove the injustices being meted out to the Geo-Jang Group.
They said Geo was a national channel and parliament believed in the freedom of the press. “The protection of freedom of the press is the constitutional responsibility of parliament,” they said.
Syed Khursheed Shah, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Haji Ghulam Bilour, Sahibzada Tariqullah, Senator Babar Ghauri, Ijazul Haq and Dr GG Jamal proposed different suggestions for the resolution of the issue.
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