MIANWALI, June 19: Federal Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed has urged journalists to come forward to defence of the country’s image as the western media was tarnishing it by portraying Pakistan as a bastion of extremists.

He said in the present time the print media in the west had become more powerful and destructive than the atom bomb, which was describing the country as land of militants despite its role in war against terror. Pakistan captured 700 terrorists and lost 400 Jawans during these operations, he added.

Sheikh Rashid was talking to journalists here at the district Press Club on Sunday when he reached here to inaugurate an FM radio station.

He said poverty and sectarianisms could be over come by spreading education, particularly among women. He urged people to set up girls’ schools with special features of Islamic teaching.

He said the government had decided to set up 50 new radio stations and 15 TV channels in the country this year. Since Chinese technology was 20 times cost-effective than that of the West the government had opted to use it for spreading information and knowledge.

He said the new FM radio station covering 60-kilometre radius, would air educational and cultural programmes, besides local information.

He announced a grant of Rs200,000 for the Press Club.

Earlier, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr Sher Afghan Khan said construction of Kalabagh Dam would definitely begin this year, because it was good for agriculture.

He said the Punjab government had allocated Rs750 million for the construction of a double road at Dhak hills which would facilitate movement of heavy traffic between Karachi and Rawalpindi.

Meanwhile, Sheikh Rashid said that offices of president, chief justice and provincial governors are constitutional and it was not mandatory for any one joining these offices to have quit a government office two years earlier, adds APP.

To a question at a press conference after taking an oath from the press club office-bearers, he said, there was no need to amend the Constitution in this particular context.

To another question, Sheikh Rashid said he had planned to visit Sirinagar as a Kashmiri in his private capacity.