Digital Archive Being Created To Protect Old Data of Radio Pakistan: Fawad

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain Monday informed the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting that a digital archive would be created in Radio Pakistan to protect and maintain its old data.

Old data of Radio Pakistan got wasted due to unavailability of the storage space, he told meeting of the committee chaired by Mian Javed Latif.

Fawad said the government had also set up the first-ever digital media wing in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to curb the propaganda emanating from the foreign countries against Pakistan.

Citing the example of an Indian channel that made a large number of videos on Noor Muqadam case, he said the move was aimed at portraying Pakistan as an unsafe country for women.

The minister informed the committee that the Media University was being set up in the country under the public-private partnership.

In 1970, he said Pakistan was the third-largest filmmaker in the world, regretting that the Indian culture had influence due to its film and music.

Fawad informed the committee that efforts were afoot to make a film on the life of Zaheer-ud-Din Babar in collaboration with Uzbekistan.

“The Prevention of Electronic Crime Act (PECA) law was enacted by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz,” said Fawad who clarified that the amendments were made in its Article 20 which increased the sentence to five years from three years for the relevant offence.

Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Secretary Shahera Shahid informed the committee that a project would be launched in the next financial year to digitalize Radio Pakistan.

She was of the view that digitalization would increase the scope of radio broadcasting, besides improving the quality.

The committee unanimously confirmed the minutes of its previous meeting held on December 6, 2021.

The ministry had given a compliance report regarding the recommendations of the previous meeting.

The committee appreciated the steps taken by the ministry for the digital migration project and recommended to consider using Radio Pakistan’s land situated in Khairpur for the DRM Project.

The committee reiterated its recommendation that a proposal to bring Khairpur Radio Station back to operation should be presented to the DDWP before next meeting of the committee.

The committee was apprised by the ministry about their PSDP projects.

The committee endorsed all the budgetary proposals relating to the ministry and its attached departments for the financial year 2022-23.

The committee had a detailed discussion on PECA Ordinance, 2022, and recommended that the matter needed further discussion therefore it would be included in the next meeting agenda.

The committee deferred the remaining agenda for its next meeting.

Engr. Usman Khan Tarakai, Nasir Khan Musazai, Ali Nawaz Awan, Tahir Iqbal, Muhammad Akram Cheema, Aftab Jehangir, Syma Nadeem, Rana Iradat Sharif Khan, Nadeem Abbas, Marriyum Aurangzeb, Saad Waseem, Zulfiqar Ali Behan, Dr. Nafisa Shah, and Naz Baloch also attended the meeting.

Source: Urdu Point

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