ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party Member National Assembly (MNA) Belum Hasnain on Monday said Kashmir’s resolution is vital for peace not only in South Asia but in the entire world.
Hasnain said that Kashmir was an international issue and should be resolved as per the wishes of the Kashmiris. Pakistan’s media houses should give more coverage to the on-going genocide at the hands of Indian occupation forces, as Kashmir was the core issue between India and Pakistan and its peaceful resolution was ‘key’ to durable peace not only in South Asia but in the entire world, she added.
She also called for more effective role of standing committees of the parliament. The standing committees’ role, she said, was just limited to general oversight as they could give recommendations, whose implementation depended on the executive. For an effective parliament, the committees would have to be made more powerful and independent, she said.
Hasnain, member of the NA Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting, said during the last three years the committee’s affairs were run in a good manner but some of its recommendations had not been implemented by the executive.
She said the Bill on Right to Information had been lingering on as it had not been tabled in any of the houses of the parliament so far. Similarly, the code of conduct for electronic media approved by the standing committees was not implemented properly, she added.
She said the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) should take strict action against the media houses which violated the code of conduct regularly. The mount of fines imposed on channels for code violations should be increased as they earned hundreds of millions of rupees due to violations but were fined just Rs 50,000 to 100,000, which was a paltry amount.
About women empowerment, the MNA said that things had improved during last 10 to 15 years but still there was need to take more steps in this regard. Women members, she added, were now playing a very active role in the proceedings of the National Assembly. Their contribution in Question Hour and legislation process was satisfactory, she said.
