LAHORE: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz will form a committee of the joint opposition to stop the PTI government from introducing the ‘black law’ for establishment of ‘Pakistan Media Development Authority’.

PML-N President and National Assembly opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif said this while presiding over a consultative meeting of the party here on Wednesday.

“The committee will analyse the legal as well as other facets of the bill and propose a strategy,” Shehbaz added.

The meeting decided the party would use all means and platforms to block the ‘draconian’ authority being established to gag the media.

He also shared with the party leaders the details of the in-depth consultation he recently had with the representatives of different media bodies.

“All representative bodies of the media have out rightly rejected the PMDA,” he said.

The opposition leader further said none of the stakeholders was consulted on the bill, nor their proposals or perspectives were sought by the government in this regard.

“Representative bodies of the media are kept out of the entire decision-making process. The government is not going to legislate with a progressive mindset, but is bent upon subjugating Pakistan’s news media,” he regretted.

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2021