March 29, 2024
Featured National

Govt to include journalists in Prime Minister’s Housing program: Fawad

Information and Broadcasting Minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain has said that the government has Prime Minister’s Housing program by Govt to include journalists set the welfare of journalists and media workers as its top priority.

He said this on Monday in a meeting with Naya Pakistan Housing Development Authority Chairman Lt. General (retired) Anwar Ali in Islamabad.

Fawad said in the first phase of the Naya Pakistan Housing program, houses will be reserved for 600 journalists from the Islamabad region. Later on, he said, the program will be extended to Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad, and Gujranwala. He added that the program will be taken to Peshawar and Quetta. “The working journalists under certain criteria will be accommodated in the Prime Minister’s Housing Scheme,” he said. “The government is also contemplating to award health cards to the journalists to enable them to avail healthcare facilities for themselves and their families.”

He reiterated the current government’s commitment to ensure free and independent media in the country. He stressed that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government considers freedom of the press as a fundamental, democratic and constitutional right.

“There is no concept of media censorship in the country,” Minister Fawad said. “Media in Pakistan enjoys unprecedented freedom. The government neither believes nor practices any press advice. Rather, it encourages self-regulation by the media.”

Both the personalities exclusively discussed the inclusion of journalists in the Prime Minister’s Housing program.

Further explaining the plan, Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said that at least six hundred houses would be held in reserve for the journalists from the Islamabad region in the first phase.

After that, he said, the program would be stretched to Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Peshawar, and Quetta.