KARACHI     -    Sindh Minister for Information, Archives and Labour Saeed Ghani has said that performance of the regional directorates of the information department is not up to the mark when it comes to highlighting soft image or performance of the Sindh government in interior part of the province.

The minister said that although the Sindh government had completed a lot of essential development projects in interior Sindh in the recent past but they had not been highlighted either in the Print media or the Electronic media befittingly.

He said this while presiding over a meeting of all the Regional Directors and District Information Officers of the Information & Archives Department at his office on Thursday. Secretary Information Imran Atta Soomro, Director General Public Relations Sindh Mansoor Ahmed Sheikh and Director Press Information Karachi Zeenat Jehan were also present during the meeting.

Secretary Information Imran Atta Soomro comprehensively briefed the Minister about the structure, functioning and performance of every Regional Directorate and DIOs of the Information Department.

Ghani while addressing his fist ever meeting with the regional directors and DIOs of the department said that it was the responsibility of the Information Department to disseminate information for the awareness of the general public about the development initiatives taken by the Sindh government.

Being the main publicity arm of the government the focus of the Information Department should be on the projection of government policies and its development activities through Print, Electronic and Social media along with maintenance of close inter personal liaison with media.

The Minister specifically pointed out that the general public should had been timely made aware about the fact that during recent rains it was the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company and not the government functionaries responsible for the delayed drainage of rain water from various rain affected areas of Hyderabad. He said that Information Department mirrored the government activities therefore its officers should be more active and efficient towards their responsibilities.

He said that the officers of the department must keep a close eye on the content of the Print and Electronic media. Whenever they observed that something derogatory had been published or broadcasted against any of the Sindh government functionaries then immediately they should contact to that department for rebuttal, he said.

The Minister said that it was also one of essential responsibilities of the5 Information Department to ensure the ample coverage of that rebuttal so that the verity of the issue or situation could reach to masses on time. Following what he said in his last meeting the Minister once again asked officers to approach towards professionalism and modern techniques to the journalism.

He directed all the regional directors to maintain close contacts, cooperate and facilitate their respective press clubs and other journalists’ The Regional Directors and DIOs informed the Minister about the difficulties they were facing at their respective regional offices regarding the infrastructure and lack of other necessities. The Ministers while taking notice of the predicaments being faced by the Regional Directors and DIOs and ensured them that few of their problems like provision of furniture and stationary would be resolved immediately while all their other difficulties would also be dealt with soon. He also directed them to submit their Annual Confidential Reports to the Secretary office every month.

This was the first time that a Minister Information paid heed to the problems being faced by the regional directorates of the Information Department. The Minister wanted that the real purpose of the Information Department should must be served and that to him was strengthening of public relations with the general public the voters and supporters of the government through interacting with the media.