ISLAMABAD, July 25: The defence ministry officials and parliamentary secretary for defence on Tuesday opposed the presence of journalists at the meeting of National Assembly standing committee on defence, saying that it would restrain them from expressing themselves freely and making speculative statements.

A member of the committee had requested its chairman Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain to permit the journalists to cover the meeting convened to discuss the Multan Fokker crash.

Federal Secretary Defence Lt-Gen (retired) Tariq Wasim Ghazi, advocating against granting permission to the journalists, said some of the things had not been finalised and were just speculations, adding that mentioning those in presence of mediapersons would send wrong messages to the audience.

“Disclosing the progress would also be difficult,” he said.