Pervaiz Elahi advises Imran Khan to ‘beware’ of his advisers, accusing them of causing a rift between govt & media

LAHORE, Mar 06 (SABAH): Speaker Punjab and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) Punjab President Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi on Sunday advised Prime Minister Imran Khan to “beware” of his advisers, accusing them of causing a rift between the government and the media.

In a statement released to media outlets, Pervaiz Elahi said he had been tasked by the prime minister to resolve issues between media houses and the government related to the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), which has recently been amended by the government through an ordinance.

In his statement on Sunday, Elahi said freedom of expression was the beauty of democracy.

He also expressed concerns over the reported withholding of advertisements for some newspapers and TV channels by the government, saying he was clueless as to why the PTI government was targeting certain media houses.

He said it seemed as if the bar on advertisements was imposed in the context of PECA, adding that government advertisements were public money and should not be used to target specific newspapers and channels.

Pervaiz Elahi said it was also surprising to note that some of the PTI members had reportedly been barred by the party from appearing in programmes of some TV channels. “This will hurt PTI in a way that it won’t be able to present its balanced viewpoint to the public,” he added.