Taking back amendments

The Minister noted that the amendments gave to the executive discretionary powers to shut down publications, were promulgated without consulting the print media's representative bodies and thus without their consent, and were the work of an unrepresentative regime. She has successfully encapsulated the grounds for their repeal, which has started with the moving of the Bill.

However, there is another aspect of her Ministry's working that the Minister should look into, the centralisation of the distribution of government advertising in it. This also goes to the credit of the Musharraf regime, when it was in its heyday. The Minister should ensure that there is a reversion to the old method of distribution of advertisements by the regional offices. In this era of globalization and privatization, it is very much an anachronism to have advertisements dished out to the media by the methods of old.