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Chaos at press conference

NISAR AHMAD SHAIKH

ISLAMABAD: The press conference of the ministry of communications, which has as many as 14 huge establishments dealing with business, contracts, planning imports etc., worth billions of rupees both in local currency and foreign exchange, ended in a fiasco.

It was thought on the part of the organisers of the press conference that a joint secretary and six or seven spokesmen of the various departments as well as the corporations of the ministry would discuss fourteen departments and corporations in a single press conference.

The departments and corporations include PTCL, PNSC, NHA, NTC, PTA, Telephone Industry of Pakistan, Carrier Telephone Industries, Pakistan Software Export Board, Karachi Port Trust, Port Qasim Authority, and last but not the least the Pakistan Post Office.

The only disciplined part of the press conference was the portion dealing with PTCL. Otherwise it was free for all. Questions were being shouted at from different angles concerning different departments and corporations.

The principal information officer (PIO) Asfaq Ahmad Gondal who was watching the proceedings with increasing dismay and finding that the situation was getting out of hand stepped in and announced the end of the press conference.