ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif has appointed Maryam Aurangzeb as State Minister for Information and Broadcasting on Monday.
An official notification in this regard will be issued soon. On October 29, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif took back the Ministry of Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage from Pervaiz Rashid, weeks after the security establishment said a ‘false and fabricated’ newspaper report breached national security.
According to a statement from the PM’s office, the premier had directed Pervaiz Rashid to step down to enable holding of an independent and detailed inquiry into the episode. “The planted story related to the National Security Committee (NSC) and National Action Plan (NAP) meeting published in Daily Dawn on October 6 was a breach of national security.” said a PM House statement.
“Evidence available so far points to a lapse on part of information minister – who has been directed to step down from office to enable holding of an independent and detailed inquiry. An inquiry committee including senior officers of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Military Intelligence (MI) and Intelligence Bureau (IB) is being formed by the Government of Pakistan to clearly apportion blame, identify interests and motives and expose all those responsible for this episode for stern action in the national interest,” it added.
The Dawn newspaper had published the story on October 6, in which renowned journalist Cyril Almeida had written about an alleged civil-military rift during the National Security Committee (NSC) meeting over the issue of tackling militant outfits.
The story drew an outpour of criticism with the military stating that it was fed to the reporter and demanded investigations into it. It cost Almeida placement of his name on the Exit Control List for less than a week, before the government eventually lifted his travel ban.
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