Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has approved spending Rs42 million of taxpayers’ money for the constitution of a digital media wing at the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, the only responsibility of which will be to defend the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government over the internet.
According to Geo, the 27-member digital media wing will defend over social media any decisions made by the government while also dealing with critics of the ruling PTI and explaining the policies of the Imran administration.
No allocations were there in the budget for the ongoing fiscal year and the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) had also rejected the government’s summary for the constitution of a digital media wing, the report said, adding that Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan has clarified how supplementary grants do not fall within the jurisdiction of the Finance Ministry.
“The ECC had left the matter of the digital media wing’s budget up to PM Imran,” she reportedly said.
Meanwhile, Focal Person to the PM on Digital Media Dr Arslan Khalid said it was the first time any government was building the capacity of the Information Ministry on the digital media front. He tweeted:
Separately, in an exclusive conversation with The Current, he maintained that digital media was a reality and capacity building of the Information Ministry on digital front was something to cherish. “From its approval to recruitment to its working, all will be public knowledge,” he said.
