interior Ministry bars its depts from media interaction.

ISLAMABAD -- The Ministry of Interior has barred all its subordinate and attached departments from directly interacting with media or giving a comment on social media without its prior approval or of the head of the department concerned.

A letter that has been written to at least 22 subordinate and attached departments which stated that Interior Minister Brigadier (Retd) Ijaz Ahmad Shah has 'directed that no officer/official should interact with media (print/electronic) nor upload any official view /comment on the social media or any other channel of information.'

The letter further said that no official would interact with the media 'except with the formal and written approval of the Secretary Interior or Head of the attached department/organization, as the case may be.'

Though the ministry in the letter did not give any reason of putting a bar on officials to interact with the media, yet the interior minister himself rarely interacts with the reporters that cover national security matters. However, he after taking oath of his office has given a number of interviews to TV anchorpersons.

The heads of the prominent departments that have been sent a copy of the letter include director general (DG) Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), national...