Governor returns Journalist Protection Bill to Sindh Assembly

 JournalismPakistan.com |  Published: 22 June 2021

Sindh Governor Imran Ismail has returned the Journalist Protection Bill for reconsideration. He cited concerns regarding funding oversight and contradictions within the legislation.

Summary

KARACHI—Sindh Governor Imran Ismail has returned the journalist protection bill by refusing to hive his assent.

The Sindh Protection of Journalists and other Media Practitioners Bill was recently passed by the Sindh Assembly.

According to Dawn, the governor returned the bill to the legislature for reconsideration because it lacked a “mechanism for monitoring funds of the commission concerned.” Reportedly, the governor had also made an observation that there was a “perceived contradiction” in the bill.

The governor pointed out in his summary that the bill proposed formation of a government-funded commission, but envisaged “neither any finance committee to supervise income/spending nor any mechanism for third party audit of government funding”. Therefore, he suggested, the bill include “an appropriate mechanism for the purpose.”

Moreover, Governor Ismail took exception to a clause which allows the commission to formulate its own rules and regulations, contending that it seemed to contradict another section of the bill stating that the government would make rules and make them public through gazette notification.

"On the basis of these observations, the governor called upon the Sindh Assembly to reconsider the bill," the paper reported.