ISLAMABAD, May 16: The newly appointed Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Mohammad Ali Durrani on Tuesday visited the offices of daily Dawn and pledged to work for the promotion of government-media relations.

On his arrival, he was welcomed by the Resident Editor M. Ziauddin and other senior reporters of the newspaper. He remained in the office for some time and took interest in the working of the newspaper.

He said the PML government believed in the freedom of press and would continue to provide all possible support for the welfare of the journalist community.

The minister also said coverage of the state controlled electronic media was being expanded in terms of providing more entertainment in addition to their usual coverage of news and current affairs programmes.

Mr Durrani said the government was very much concerned about price hike in the country and was trying to provide relief to the people, especially in the forthcoming budget.

However, he said prices in Pakistan were still low compared to India, Iran, Afghanistan and many other countries. In this regard, he referred to oil and flour prices which he said were much higher in India than in Pakistan. “I am not defending the government but only trying to give a comparison of the prices in the region,” he added.