ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday said a strategy was being devised for payment of the arrears of media, piling up and pending since the previous governments, so that problems of the newspaper industry could be addressed.

“Media has a key role in promotion of democracy, ensuring good governance, transparency and meritocracy. The government will extend full support to the media,” he said while talking to a delegation of All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) in Islamabad.

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, Special Assistant to PM on Media Iftikhar Durrani, Senator Faisal Javed and Secretary Information Shafqat Jalil were also present on this occasion.

The prime minister said the media played an important role in conveying the ideology of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to the people and making it a success.

“If media would not have been there, I would not have been here (on this position). We will fully support media,” he said.

The APNS delegation felicitated Imran on being elected as the prime minister and apprised him of the problems being faced by the newspaper industry.

The prime minister said that the PTI had attained this position after a struggle of 22 years, adding it had come to power due to its political efforts and with the support of masses.

“When I entered the politics, my struggle was not against the politicians but mafias. I know which party has evolved in which nursery. The PTI has not grown in any incubation center,” he remarked.

He said Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who achieved his objective through continued struggle and democratic means, was his ideal in politics.

Imran Khan said his political competition was with those who were criminals and calling them democrats was the insult of democracy.

The premier said that due to highlighting the Panama Papers issue, he had to face character assassination and for that purpose women were used.

Making a political comparison of provinces, he said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which was earlier famous for not giving the mandate again to any political party, honoured the PTI with the two-thirds mandate in 2018 elections.

He said as the PTI was a democratic party its government did not make any intervention in the recent bye-elections in Punjab.

The PM said after the 2013 elections, he had demanded to open only four constituencies and continued to strive for that purpose for a year, but the then government did not open them.

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