ISLAMABAD: Federal Information Secretaries Forum has expressed concern at the disquiet prevailing amongst the government’s permanent media establishment largely due to frequent transfer of senior media managers including the federal information secretary.

A group of eight former federal information secretaries which met here on Wednesday with Khawaja Ijaz Sarwar in the chair noted that nine information secretaries have changed positions in a span of five years with three in the past year and a half alone, while the last information secretary was removed from the post barely a month after the promotion as information secretary.

The forum regretted that eight principal information officers had changed positions in five years, Radio Pakistan has had ten Director Generals (DGs) in five years and PTV has had eight managing directors (MDs) in five years.

The country’s and the government’s image promotion demanded a motivated team of media professionals who enjoyed the trust and confidence of the government and an enabling work environment that hinges as much on security of tenure as on the flow of information to them from the relevant sources.

The forum in a press release said that it was expected from the incumbent government unlike its predecessors, that the policy of ad hocism would be discarded and best use of the institutions would be made in the interest of the country.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2020