Taking back amendments

FEDERAL Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ms Sherry Rehman has moved a bill in the National Assembly taking back the amendments made in the Press, Newspapers, News Agencies and Books Registration Ordinance. These amendments were, along with the amendments to the PEMRA Ordinance, the draconian changes made by the Musharraf government under the protection of last year's Emergency, to make the media, electronic and print, subservient to the government. It should also be noted that the Prime Minister had promised at the time of his first speech to Parliament that the previous regime's media curbs would be lifted, and the present bill is merely a redemption of that promise. The PEMRA amendments have already been repealed; now is the turn of those amendments to the Ordinance which would have led to the prosecution of newspapers on flimsy charges. The changes the previous regime had made to the Ordinance had empowered the DCO to suspend the declaration of publications that violated the set of clauses related to the sovereignty and integrity of Pakistan.