Senate rejects PEMRA Amendment Bill 2020
Opposition opposes move, says empowering it will ‘further endanger freedom of press’
ISLAMABAD:
The Senate on Monday rejected the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2020 by a majority vote after the opposition parties opposed it over apprehensions that empowering the authority with regard to human resource management would “further endanger the freedom of press”.
The Senate session was presided over by Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani. Today, was Legislative Day in the upper house.
The rejection of the Pemra (Amendment) Bill, 2020 irked Leader of the House Shahzad Waseem.
He was of the view that Pemra was to be empowered to take action on the jobs of media workers and their withheld salaries. “It should be decided that who is against the rights of workers,” an angry Waseem said, adding that the rights of the workers in all institutions should be protected.