LAHORE:Secretary Information & Culture and Excise & Taxation departments Asif Bilal Lodhi chaired a meeting on Saturday to review the Amendment Bill 2020 of Punjab Advertisement Policy 2012 at the Excise Department here.
Additional Secretary (I&C) Nazia Jabeen, Director General Public Relations Department Rao Parvez Akhtar, Director (Advertisement) Kiran Fazal Butt and Deputy Director (Finance) DGPR Department Haseeb Zaidi were present.
The meeting reviewed the causes for delay in implementation of the advertising policy’s amendment bill 2020. The secretary was informed about the concerns of regional newspapers while giving a briefing on the obstacles in implementation of the amended policy. The meeting also discussed reservations of the finance department on the recommendations of special allowance for the DGPR Department. The recommendations from Punjab Institute of Language, Art & Culture (PILAC) were discussed as well.
Bilal Lodhi said that policies were made to solve problems of stakeholders and not to create difficulties. Protecting the rights of regional newspapers was the department’s responsibility, he added. The amendment bill, 2020 would be presented before the cabinet committee for modification in the light of concerns of newspaper owners, he said.
He noted that the DGPR Department has been playing a key role in promoting and supporting government policies while creating positive public opinion for a long time. To harmonize ourselves with the modern needs and requirements in this rapidly changing information age and to improve the efficiency of the department, solving the problems of the employees was our priority, he said. The special allowance case of the department would be sent through the proper channel to the cabinet committee after removing reservations of the finance department, he said.