ISLAMABAD, Dec 28: The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has said that the authority envisaged in the government’s draft bill titled Press and Publications Regulatory Authority (Papra) was not at all needed.

“We do not see the justification for regulating the print media when deregulation is the order of the day,” HRCP director I. A. Rehman said in a statement issued on Thursday.

A veteran journalist, Mr Rehman said it was difficult to see what the bill meant by “efforts to streamline registration of newspapers and periodicals etc” when the matter was covered under the Press, Newspapers, News Agencies and Book Registration Ordinance 2002.

Ostensibly the bill was designed to meet the requirements of fixing rates of government advertisements and preparation of the central media list, he said.

“We are opposed to this system because it is an instrument of putting pressure on newspapers to toe the government line. All public sector offices should be free to release their publicity to whichever publications they think enjoy good circulation,” he said on behalf of HRCP.

Papra will have far greater authority than the existing Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) “and we do not see the justification for that,” said the HRCP official. “The ABC has no power to punish anyone while Papra will have the authority to impose heavy fines and prosecute media people on charges carrying the punishment of imprisonment,” he noted.