RAWALPINDI: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) spokeswoman Marriyum Aurangzeb on Thursday said Prime Minister Imran Khan was busy is taking political revenge on PML-N leaders instead of paying attention to the coronavirus patients. “Imran Khan is playing fixed matches against the opposition, especially PML-N, and is more interested in making ‘fake’ cases against Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif and their family members through the National Accountability Bureau (NAB),” she said while talking to media at the Rawalpindi Press Club after distributing safety kits among journalists.

She said the PTI government was not interested to ascertain whether or not doctors, paramedical staff, law enforcement agencies and media persons had been provided safety kits for Covid-19 but was regularly checking if Hamza Shahbaz was in jail or not.

She said daily wagers, labourers and common citizens were suffering badly due to the pandemic but the government had failed to deliver. She said the government also failed to come up with a proper policy to provide relief to the people in this difficult time.

She demanded a relief package for the media industry and said there was a dire need to provide financial help to the media houses so they could also meet the challenges of the pandemic.

“Media is also a frontline fighter against coronavirus but the government has ignored it. Like businessmen and other segments of society, journalists should be provided a relief package as they are performing duties like law enforcement agencies and doctors and educating the citizens about the challenges of the pandemic.”

She said the government should also clear all dues of media houses and provide them interest-free loans so they will manage to pay salaries to the workers.

“Democracy is not possible in the country without a free and independent media,” she said.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2020