March 28, 2003	Friday	Muharram 24, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, March 27: The Pakistan Television (PTV) came under fire in the Senate on Thursday for not televising the proceedings of first session of the upper house.

Some senators deplored that the PTV had not covered the oath taking of senators during the first session of the upper house.

They asked Senate Chairman Mohammadmian Soomro to give a special ruling and direct the PTV to properly cover the proceedings of the house.

The senators asked the chairman to allow live and unedited coverage of the proceedings. “If the PTV does not change its attitude, the status of senators would be equal to district nazims,” they lamented.

Speaking on the occasion, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said that due to some reasons live and unedited coverage of senate’s proceedings could not be allowed.

However, he said the PTV would properly televise recorded coverage of the upper house in future.

#JOURNALIST’s STRIKE:# Journalists observed a token strike for allowing government officials to sit in the Senate’s press gallery.

The protest was lodged when a number of reporters could not find seats in the press gallery to cover the proceedings of the upper house.

The information minister intervened into the matter and asked the Senate chairman to direct all government officials to leave the press gallery for reporters.

The strike ended when government officials left the gallery and all the reporters got seats.