KARACHI, Dec 13: The Sindh government, instead of putting its own house in order, decided to punish the press corps for the mismanagement by the Sindh Assembly secretariat and its staff in issuing passes for the press and visitors’ galleries on Thursday.

The Sindh Information Department on Thursday night had announced the cancellation of all the passes issued for the press and visitors’ galleries for the full session of the assembly, which began on Dec 12. The department had also asked the newspapers to send the name of only one journalist each, who would be issued a pass.

The decision in this regard had been taken by the Home Secretary, DG Rangers and an official of the Special Branch in view of bad coverage by the press of the inaugural assembly session, according to an officer of the information department.

When the national dailies drew the department’s attention towards the fact that detailed coverage of the assembly sessions was not possible through one or two reporters, even then the department refused to oblige.

It claimed there were only 37 seats in the press gallery while only 50 passes had been printed. Thus it was not possible for the department to accede to the request.

However, even the passes allowed to the press were not available to them till 12 midnight. It has been learnt that many passes have been delivered by the secretariat staff to the information department.