Pakistan asked to lift ban on Afghan TV programmes

PESHAWAR (PAN with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Barrister Masud Kauser and a senior presidential aide.

The journalists met Kauser at the Governor’s House in Peshawar, head of Mediothek Community Centre Afghanistan (MCCA), Hamidullah Zazai, told Pajhwok Afghan News.

He said the delegation asked the governor to take joint steps with the Afghan government for improving contacts between journalists on both sides of Durand Line, the Pak-Afghan border.

They suggested an admission quota for Afghan journalists at the Peshawar University to improve their capacity, he said. The newsmen demanded lifting of a ban on Afghan TV channels in Pakistan.

At a separate meeting, President Asif Ali Zardari’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar assured the journalists of sharing their concerns with the president.

Journalists could play a crucial role in the fight against terrorism in the region, Babar believed, asking his interlocutors to help remove the stigma being carried by the neighbouring countries.

He explained that Pakistani police’s inappropriate behaviour with Afghan citizens in no way reflected the government’s policy.

At a two-day conference, jointly organised by Afghan and Pakistani journalists at the Peshawar University, ended today.

myn/mud