Zubair Qureshi
Members of the Urdu service of the predominant state media company of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) the China Media Group (CMG) on Thursday held important meetings with the officials of the Information Ministry, the media regulatory body and the business leaders and discussed the scope of broader cooperation between China and Pakistan in the field of broadcast media.
The Chinese guests are in the town on the invitation of Daily Pakistan Observer in connection with the 10th anniversary of the signing of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and to celebrate the decade of this flagship project of the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI).
The four-member delegation led by Ms Wang Qianting (Urdu name: Musarrat) and comprising Ms Hu Pingping (Noureen), Ms Du Jianing (Tabsum) and Mr Qin Shengrui (Tahir) called on Information Secretary Sohail Ali Khan, Chairman of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) Muhammad Saleem Baig, Director News of the state media agency Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) Adnan Akram Bajwa, Head of APP’s China News Desk, Dr Furqan Rao and former President of the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) Zafar Bakhtawari.
During the meeting with Information Secretary Sohail Ali Khan, the Chinese delegation’s host and Chief Digital Strategist of Pakistan Observer Fahd Gauhar Malik introduced the guests and briefed the Information Secretary about the purpose of their visit. A number of diverse subjects ranging from regional FM Radios in Chinese and Urdu languages to collaboration between the state-owned Pakistan Television (PTV) and the CGTN News were discussed during the meeting.
Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the PTV Syed Sajjad Jafri and Director Engineering PTV, Arif Noor were also present on the occasion. Information Secretary who is also Managing Director of the PTV, Sohail Ali Khan welcomed the delegation to the PTV headquarters. He commended Pakistan Observer for inviting an important Chinese media delegation to Pakistan at a time when the nation was celebrating the decade of CPEC. He offered the Chinese media giant cooperation in diverse areas such as along the CPEC route so that people of both the countries could have access to each other’s media services. PTV he said was the only terrestrial broadcaster covering more than 98pc of the country. This is why collaboration with the state TV could be of far-reaching impact for the CMG, he suggested.
The members of the Chinese delegation while thanking the Information secretary pitched the idea of running Chinese Urdu news on PTV. In return we can run your news and current affairs programmes on our screens, they said. Teaching Chinese language in Urdu on the PTV was also discussed. Both sides agreed to submit a working paper on these proposals and make it a joint interactive collaboration.
In their meeting with PEMRA Chairman, the regulatory framework and airing foreign (Chinese) content on the local TV channels was discussed. Director General (Licensing & Broadcast) Wakeel Ahmad Khan briefed the guests about Pakistani media horizon. We can write to the local TV channels (PBA) about the possibility of airing Chinese programmes as there is a provision of 10pc foreign content on every TV channel, he said.
PEMRA Chief Saleem Baig paid rich tributes to the Chinese government and the leadership for making tremendous progress in all fields of life including media. Development, he said, is inclusive and the Chinese leadership should be credited for continuity of their policies and vision of inclusive development.
Business tycoon, Zafar Bakhtawari in his meeting with the Chinese delegation presented souvenirs to them and paid glowing tributes to the Chinese government’s recent interventions to help Pakistan come out of its economic quagmire. China, he said, is a trusted friend of Pakistan and has always stood by us come what may.
The delegation members also visited the offices of Pakistan Observer and called on Executive Editor Gauhar Zahid Malik. They expressed their gratitude to the newspaper’s management for inviting them on an important historic occasion. Gauhar Zahid Malik welcomed them to Islamabad and hoped they would make maximum use of their interaction/meetings with the Pakistani media, people and the government representatives.
