All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) concerned over probable closure of Wafaq | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) concerned over probable closure of Wafaq

LAHORE- The provincial regional committee of the All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) in a meeting showed grave concern over the probable closure of daily Wafaq. Arif Nizami Editor The Nation, while chairing the APNS meeting said that the discriminatory attitude of the Punjab government to wards daily Wafaq had created financial crises for the newspaper.

Mustafa Sadiq, Editor-in-Chief of Wafaq, said that the Directorate General Public Relations Punjab (DGPR) had made a substantial cut in volume and rates of the advertisement to his paper, due to which it was facing financial crises. He maintained that under the prevalent circumstances it would be very difficult to continue with the publication of daily Wafaq after 15th September. He thanked the APNS members for attending to the issue and showing their solidarity and cooperation with him.

The meeting decided to request the management of daily Wafaq to postpone for two weeks, the decision to close the newspaper so that an APNS committee could meet the Punjab governor and minister for information for an amicable solution of the issue by their personal involvement. The APNS meeting chaired by Arif Nizami also constituted a four-member committee comprising Arif Nizami, Altaf Hasan Qureshi, Mujib-ur- Rehman Shami and Mustafa Sadiq giving it mandate to resolve the issue with the provincial government.

Jamil Athar, Editor daily Juraat and daily Tajarat, Tariq Farooq, Editor daily Jehan Numa and Adeeb Jawedani, Editor Moon Digest also brought their cases of the same nature to the notice of APNS regional committee saying their advertisements have also been slashed heavily by the office of DGPR.

Secretary General APNS demanded of the authorities to withdraw the notice issued in this regard. He said that an emergent meeting of the executive committee of the APNS should be convened in Lahore to streamline the future strategy on the issue.
Source: The Nation
Date:9/12/2000