ISLAMABAD: Members of the Senate Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting were on Monday taken aback when Minister of State Maryam Aurangzeb informed them that the draft Pemra code of conduct amended by the committee had been misplaced.

The committee had prepared the draft and handed it over to the ministry of information about a year ago with a recommendation to notify it.

Chairman Kamil Ali Agha directed that an inquiry should be conducted to ascertain how the document went missing. “There must be some mala fide intention behind the disappearance of the draft,” he remarked.Committee member Senator Farhatullah Babar told Dawn that he was amazed over the statement of the minister.

Mr Babar said almost a year ago the committee had reached the conclusion that the draft code of conduct had been made by or to favour the owners of television channels.

Ministry notifies old code of conduct after state minister says the amended draft was misplaced

“For example, there was a section in the code of conduct which allowed TV cameramen to enter any person’s privacy and telecast it. On the other hand, the person had no right to challenge or lodge a complaint against it,” he said.

“So the committee decided to prepare a balanced code of conduct and after a detailed deliberation the draft was finalised and handed over to the ministry of information for notification,” he said.

The ministry seemed reluctant to notify the code of conduct but the committee continued reminding it at every meeting. In the meanwhile, he added, the Supreme Court took notice of the issue and directed for the notification of the code of conduct.

But without informing the apex court that the Senate committee had made changes to the document, the ministry notified the old code of conduct about three months ago.

“We inquired about it and learnt that the draft of our code of conduct was never submitted to the court. During the meeting on Monday, the state minister came with an excuse that the draft prepared by the committee had been misplaced,” he said.

“The time for filing an appeal with court to review the notification has lapsed,” Mr Babar said. During the meeting, Ms Aurangzeb claimed that the ministry had written a letter to the standing committee to provide the draft of the amended code of conduct but received no response.

But Mr Babar said copies of the draft were not only given to the ministry but also distributed among mediapersons.

The committee chairman wondered how a document can disappear from the record of the ministry. “It shows that someone deliberately misplaced it.” The minister assured the meeting that she would sort it out before the next meeting of the committee.

Action against TV anchor sought

Senator Nehal Hashmi told the meeting that television anchor Dr Shahid Masood had passed remarks about him on the basis of his picture with Justice Amir Hani Muslim, who is a member of the bench hearing the Panama leaks case.

“How can a person pass remarks about me by just looking at a picture. An explanation should be sought from Mr Shahid. Moreover, it should be examined if Mr Shahid was qualified to hold programmes as an anchor or not,” he said, addressing Pemra Chairman Absar Alam.

However, Mr Agha said the committee would not recommend to Pemra to issue a notice to the anchorperson.

“You can take up the matter in your personal capacity but the committee will not get itself involved in it,” Mr Agha told the Pemra chairman.

Published in Dawn, November 22nd, 2016