Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar says government is working on a health insurance scheme for journalists.

He was briefing Senate Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting which met in Islamabad today with Chairman Senator Syed Ali Zafar in the chair.        

The Minister said under the scheme 30,000 media workers will be benefited, while it will be completed in two phases and five to ten thousand journalists will be included in the first phase.                    

He told the meeting that 1.6 billion rupees have been cleared for the news industry during the incumbent government's tenure.                              

Attaullah Tarar said the Ministry has requested the Prime Minister to abolish the 10 percent tax imposed on newsprint.

He said the ministry has also emphasized that salaries of reporters and media workers should be increased and there should be no exploitation.

The Minister briefed the meeting that no advertisements of any private TV channel have been stopped at the moment and everyone is getting ads according to their ranking.      

He said currently there are 2000 newspapers in the country and All Pakistan Newspapers Society has been asked to sit down and make a plan of action regarding the dummy newspapers.    

Regarding the political atmosphere in the country, the Minister said we believe in democratic values and traditions. He said political opposition does not mean political enmity.