KARACHI: Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon has said that the provincial government, in collaboration with the private sector, has planned to institute an endowment fund for journalists.

Talking to newsmen at the Karachi Press Club, which he visited on Thursday to distribute challans for the plots allotted sometime ago to members of the club, he said the fund would be set up this year to help journalists meet urgent financial needs and to ensure that they did not look elsewhere for assistance.

Mr Memon said the Sindh government would construct an auditorium and a press conference hall at the club.

“There is a congenial relationship between the Pakistan People’s Party and the journalist fraternity which always sided with the oppressed people and rule of justice,” he said.

He said the federal government had initiated a campaign to victimise some media groups, but the PPP would not allow any such move against TV channels and journalists. He said the PPP would stand by journalists at every forum.

In reply to a question, he said as per a decision of the federal and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments, people displaced from North Waziristan would be accommodated in camps being set up in KP and donations and relief goods collected by the PPP throughout the country would be distributed to displaced persons at their camps.

“Some elements are trying to create misunderstanding over displaced persons. They are our brothers and we will not leave them alone in their hour of trial and tribulation.”

Answering another question, Mr Memon claimed that the agenda of PTI chief Imran Khan and PAT chief Tahirul Qadri was “to derail democracy”.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2014