Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif on Thursday ordered a restructuring of the Directorate General Public Relations (DGPR) and called for third-party validation to assess the department’s performance. She also approved construction of a new DGPR headquarters building and directed authorities to take immediate steps toward clearing outstanding payments owed to the media.
The directives were issued at a special meeting chaired by the chief minister, during which Information and Culture Minister Azma Zahid Bukhari gave a detailed briefing on the department’s functioning and communication strategy.
Maryam Nawaz said the DGPR needed to be brought in line with the demands of the modern era to ensure timely dissemination of information to the public. “Communication has evolved from an art into a science, and it is important to understand this,” she said. Stressing the need to modernise the department’s working methods, she noted that the public now lives in an era of information abundance, making it essential to keep citizens informed about the government’s welfare initiatives so they can distinguish fact from misinformation.
She also commended the information minister’s role in setting an example in the field of public communication.
