Islamabad:
Journalists Boikoted Map Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzebs press conference after the budget Wednesday, after the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) broke
With a decades old tradition by not giving a technical orientation about the financial bill.
The boycott forced a delay at the press conference when the Ministry of Finance’s officials tried to convince journalists to return – without success. Information Minister Attaullah Tarar eventually intervened and managed to solve the resistance, which allowed the briefing to continue.
Journalists protested the absence of the usual technical session and said that such orientations had been provided consistently for over 20 years.
The omission this year was seen as a serious breach of transparency.
Later, the Minister of Finance sent the relevant officials to persuade the journalists, but to no avail. When the case became serious, Tarar reached the ‘P’ block where the press conference was held and resolved the case.
