Media Ord draft mockery of democracy: PPP

Islamabad, Sept 12: Pakistan People's Party (PPP) has mocked at the draft of the Pakistan Print Media Regulatory Authority (PPMRA) Ordinance terming it as a mockery of Pakistan’s democracy. Voicing her strong opposition to the Ordinance, PPP Vice-President, Senator Sherry Rehman, said yesterday in a statement that the draft PPMRA Ordinance threatened to roll back hard won press freedoms in Pakistan, according a report in "The Nation" today. She claimed that during the last PPP Government's term, they had repealed this kind of black press law in the first hundred days of the Government. "It was a promise Benazir Bhutto had made to the press only a few days before she was martyred as she had joined the media protests against media curbs on the streets of Islamabad.” She added: “We must remember that the right to freedom of opinion and expression is a human right that is stipulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that Pakistan voted in favour of. This pernicious draft cannot be allowed to become a law. The PPMRA Ordinance threatens to curb the media and the public's freedom of press and information and makes a mockery of Pakistan’s democracy.” The PPP lawmaker expressed her disbelief over the possibility for the PPMRA Ordinance to become law, saying, “The genesis of this law can be traced backed to the darkest days of Pakistan under military rule, the days when media freedom was a dream quite distant. This ordinance, if passed, will single-handedly wipe all of the hard work brave journalists and civil society activists put in order for Pakistan to have press freedom after the oppressive Zia[ul Haq] regime.” The senator said the government must publicly renounce any possibility that the anti-democratic PPMRA Ordinance would become law. UNI