KARACHI: Sheher Bano, Vice President, Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), has welcomed the unanimous approval of the Sindh Journalists Protection Bill 2021 by the Sindh Assembly and thanked the Sindh Government and the members of the Sindh Assembly on this great achievement.
“It was our long standing demand to have legislation for the protection of journalists, which has finally materialized in the form of this bill,” she said in a statement on this occasion. “Today is a historic day that the Sindh Assembly passed a bill on which leaders from all parties including PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari, Information Minister Nasir Hussain Shah, Law Minister Murtaza Wahab and other members of the Sindh Assembly, extended their support and made possible its approval unanimously from the assembly. We also thank the Information Department and the Standing Committee and the opposition leaders for involving us in the entire consultative processes,” she said while expressing hopes that the implementation of this bill will be done in letter and spirit. However, she said that the bill is under review by representative unions of the journalists and further suggestions will be made after complete review of the bill.
She expressed her satisfaction that most of the suggestions made by PFUJ were included in the bill. She also said that the bill will especially protect women who are victims of harassment not only in their workplace but also in the field and online. She hoped that like Sindh, the rest of the provincial assemblies and National Assembly will also pass such bills for the protection of journalists so that journalists across the country could get legal protection. She said that today’s bill is a victory of those martyred journalists who sacrificed their lives in the line of duty. She demanded that the government should ensure proper representation of women in the commission which will be formed under the bill as the majority of women are now associated with the media and their representation must be ensured at all levels to solve their problems.
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