PESHAWAR, Sept 24: Denouncing the government-approved press council, defamation and access to information laws, participants at a seminar here on Tuesday urged upon the government to leave such important legislations to the next parliament.

The participants condemned the way the government had been keeping the drafts of all these laws close guarded secret and keeping the general public ignorant about it.

The seminar on “Press council and defamation laws” was arranged by South Asia Partnership in collaboration with Human Resource Management and Development Centre (HRMDC) and Workers Education Programme.

The participants were unanimous on the point that  the government had been introducing all these laws with malafide intentions and in haste. They believed that a   press council supervised by the government would be used to muzzle the press and the approved defamation law would be a hanging sword over the heads of the working journalists.

They also demanded that the wage board award for journalists should be implemented so as to improve their working conditions.

The panelists were central president of Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, I. H. Rashid, Mohammad Riaz (Dawn), Behroz Khan, provincial information secretary of PPP, Khwaja Yawar Naseer and leader of Humanist Party, Mukhtiar Bacha. Irfan Mufti of SAP was the facilitator.

Mr Rashid said they were not in favour of unbridled freedom of the press but at the same time they won’t allow introduction of a government-supervised press council. He said: “We will not oppose an independent and autonomous press council as it will help in redressing grievances of ordinary public.”   He said there were a number of oppressive laws in the field to curtail independence of the press, including  the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, Pakistan Penal Code, Official Secrecy Act, Security of Pakistan Act, Press and Publication Ordinance, Criminal Procedure Code, etc. He added that there was no need of introducing any further laws for the purpose of defamation as an aggrieved person could move the court under section 499 and other provisions of PPC.

The PFUJ chief highlighted the plight of working journalists and non-implementation of the wage board award, stating that if the award was implemented it would  help in improving quality of work.

Mohammad Riaz dilated on the history of press councils and stated that Gen Zia had established press council for creating rifts among the journalists, as they had raised voice against  his military rule. He added that press  councils functioned in different countries across the world including neighbouring India, but there the council was subservient to the parliament and not to the government.

He opposed the defamation law, stating that it would help the persons involved in white collar offences, as journalists would be scared of highlighting their misdeeds if the defamation law would be introduced. He added that the newspapers owners in collusion with the successive governments and they were least bothered about such oppressive laws.

Behroz Khan regretted that everything in Pakistan was dealt as classified by successive governments. He said the access to information law would be of no use for the journalists, as a large section of information could not be acquired under the said law.