…The Women Parliamentary Caucus takes up issues concerning human rights as the protection of journalists is equally important
PESHAWAR: The Women Parliamentary Caucus of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Monday assured the Pakistan Journalists Safety Coalition (PJSC) KP chapter and national media watchdog Freedom Network of support for a bill on protection of journalists in the province,Iqbal Khattak said.
The media Watchdog head Iqbal Khattak said that the assurance was held out during a meeting of the PJSC-KP chapter with the caucus members. He said Dr Sumera Shams chaired the meeting. Riffat Sardar, chairperson of KP Commission on Status of Women, Iqbal Khattak, Executive Director of Freedom Network, media laws expert Muhammad Aftab Alam, Nasir Hussain, president of Khyber Union of Journalists, Saiful Islam Saifi, PJSC-KP chairperson, journalist Farzana Ali and a number of caucus members attended the meeting.
“The Women Parliamentary Caucus takes up issues concerning human rights as the protection of journalists is equally important for us,” Dr Sumera Shams told the meeting. She said the caucus’s general meeting would take up this matter in its forthcoming meeting for deliberation.
Iqbal Khattak said PJSC, representing broad-based stakeholders, was working on a legal framework to project journalists. He said that Pakistan had become the first Asian country to have passed a special law on protection of journalists.
Aftab Alam shared salient features of draft protection law underlining famous three “Ps” denoting ‘Prevention, Protection and Prosecution’ to consider for any law, including the draft law for protection of journalists.
