September 27, 2008	Saturday	Ramazan 26, 1429

LAHORE, Sept 26: The media has fallen from its traditional role of being the gatekeeper of the truth and is helping promote militancy, while the government is failing to provide people with the basic security, says the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).

Speaking at a press conference on the growing menace of terror attacks, both in Pakistan's urban centres as well as tribal areas, HRCP Chairperson Asma Jahangir called for an all parties conference to be convened to find solutions to the problems.

She said: "Our government is not serious about the protection of its own people: we don't even have an interior minister." She said it was evident after the Marriot attack that the Interior Ministry was working for VIPs alone.

Regarding the situation in Swat, she said HRCP investigations had found that local police lacked modern technology, training and numbers to maintain law and order.

With regard to the claim that Taliban have the support of the locals, Ms Jahangir stressed that the outcome of the February election in the province, in which ANP, PPP and PML-Q prospered, attested to the fact that a system of rough justice was not favoured by the local inhabitants. She said militants were not solely drawn from the local population rather they were made-up of many foreign fighters.

HRCP Secretary-General IA Rehman said the news emanating from Pakistan's north-western areas were both scarce and coloured.