Morning show issue must end after apology: Kaira
LALAMUSA/JAUHARABAD: Former minister for Information and Broadcasting and PPP leader Qamar Zaman Kaira on Monday condemned the ongoing campaign against the Geo/Jang Group and said the matter concerning a morning show’s content should end after submission of apology.
He was talking to various delegations and media persons at Dera Kaira on his return from a foreign tour. Kaira also condemned the incident in which a vehicle carrying the Jang Group newspapers was torched and said the morning show issue should be left to the TV channel’s staff, who had already apologised and the Allah Almighty. There was no justification of holding protests against the Jang Group and besieging its offices, he added.
Responding to a question, Kaira said all political parties, including the PPP, had welcomed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s visit to India because good relations between the neighbouring countries were a must for peace and progress.
The PPP leader said there was no threat to democracy by the rallies organised by Imran Khan, adding that the people of Pakistan had given a lot of sacrifices for democracy and would not let anyone to derail it.
Kaira expressed his party’s full support to the present government although, he remarked, the PML-N had not cooperated with their government.He described media as a powerful entity, but said it required the armed forces-like discipline.
Meanwhile, citizens in Lalamusa took out a rally to protest the incident of setting on fire the Jang Group vehicle and the attempt to torch a Geo News DSNG van in Lahore. Protesters holding banners and placards demanded immediate arrest of the elements responsible of cowardly acts.
The citizens also called for restoring the transmission of Geo Network’s TV channels on cable.And in Jauharabad, senior Supreme Court lawyer Syed Imdad Hussain Shah said there was no need to pursue the morning show issue when the Geo management and the people concerned had apologised for the affair.
Imdad and other senior lawyers of the local bar said freedom of expression was inalienable and had clearly been defined in the Article 19 of the Constitution.They blasted the efforts of rival media houses and some political elements to target the Geo/Jang Group and called for foiling their designs.
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