MUZAFFARABAD: Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas on Saturday said his government would send delegations of Kashmiri journalists to Western, Middle Eastern and Central Asian states to draw attention of opinion makers there towards the flagrant human rights violations in occupied Jammu and Kashmir and its impact on the Kashmiris on both side of the divide.

He made this announcement in his address at the oath-taking ceremony of Central Press Club Muzaffarabad. Earlier, headministered oath to the club’s newly-elected body led by senior journalist Wahid Iqbal Butt.

The prime minister said he believed that the world community would prefer to hear from the Kashmiris about the situation in their motherland facing Indian repression for the past 75 years.

“Since the journalists on our side too have been writing about India’s barbarities in occupied Kashmir in one way or the other I believe they are suitable people to narrate the situation and sentiments of their brethren across the divide,” he said.

PM Ilyas asked the journalists to keep on documenting the plight of their struggling brothers and sisters in the occupied territory for reference and record.

Regretting that “everyone holding a pen and diary or a mobile phone pretended to be a journalist,” he said it was high time to determine the qualification of a mediaperson on the one hand and launch short and long training courses for them to improve their professional skills.

He said the government would also sponsor inter-provincial tours of Kashmiri journalists to help them build bonds with their co-professionals in otherparts of the country.

The prime minister announced a donation of Rs3 million for the club.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2023