Elections will be held on time, ECP will announce its date: Solangi

ISLAMABAD (APP) - Caretaker Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Murtaza Solangi said on Friday that the elections would be held on time and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) would announce the date of polls.

He expressed these views during a meeting with the Political Counsellor of the British High Commission Zoe Ware on Friday. The discussion was held on Pak-UK relations, hate speech, misinformation, elimination of disinformation, promotion of cooperation in media sectors and the Safe Digital Environment Programme of UNDP.

The British Political Consul assured her full support for the development of bilateral relations between Pakistan and the United Kingdom.

The minister said that Pakistan highly valued its relations with Britain. He expressed the hope that UNDP’s Safe Digital Environment programme will help counter misinformation and hateful narratives. The project, he added, will further improve the knowledge, capacity and skills of key government agencies and officials in identifying false and hateful narratives in the online space.

The minister said that misinformation, disinformation and fake news was a problem of the whole world which should be controlled. "The biggest challenge on social media was fake news," he opined. He said that help would be taken from the UK’s Modern Media Curriculum for providing training to journalists and Information Service Academy will play an important role in this regard.

He said that awareness sessions on hate speech and misinformation would be organized at the ICA. Cooperation between Pakistan and Britain in the fields of film and drama was also discussed in the meeting. “Film and drama play an important role in highlighting the culture and positive identity of any country,” Murtaza Solangi remarked.