Govts failed to honour its commitments: APNS
KARACHI: The All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) Wednesday paid tributes to Majid Nizami, publisher/chief editor, Nawa-i-Waqt Group of Publications, the Executive Committee members offered Fateha and expressed their profound grief over the sad demise of the veteran colleague.
In a press release APNS Secretary General Sarmad Ali stated that the Executive Committee of APNS held its meeting here that was chaired by Hameed Haroon wherein it was decided that the APNS in collaboration with the CPNE would hold a National Reference at Lahore to highlight the role and services of Majid Nizami at the end of August wherein the prime minister had been requested to attend as the chief guest.
The Executive Committee members across the country noted with concern that the federal government had failed to honour its commitments by the federal information minister in writing. The federal government has assured to clear the dues of member publications against the Ministry of Information and the outstanding bills of devolved ministries. The non-payment of dues has badly affected the economies of member publications especially smaller and medium sized newspapers. The members dismayed that the federal government has also not honoured its commitments to increase government advertisement rates pending for the last two years.
The APNS Executive Committee considered the report of the Punjab Committee and noted that despite the directives of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, the committee formed by him had held deliberations without consulting APNS, a clear violation of the written directives issued by the CM Punjab.
The Committee has noted that the DGPR was allocating provincial advertisements to non-APNS publications without adhering to the advertisement policy. It demanded that the DGPR be directed to release its advertisements to Metropolitan B, regional newspapers and periodicals as per quota agreed with the APNS. It was noted that the newspapers from Faisalabad and Bahawalpur were being denied display advertisements.
The Executive Committee members flayed the Punjab government on the levy of sales tax on the newspapers contrary to the assurances made by the Punjab chief minister and were of the considered opinion that such unwise actions of the bureaucracy would further adversely reflect upon the relations between the government of the Punjab and the print media.
The Executive Committee also considered the report of Balochistan Committee wherein it was noted that the Balochistan government had not yet evolved any advertising policy for releasing its advertisements on merit and judicious basis. The Executive Committee urged upon the CM Balochistan that a provincial advertisement policy be formed in consultation with the APNS so that the government advertisements were released to genuine publications on merit.
The Executive Committee noted the indifference of the Sindh government to clear the long outstanding dues of member publications contrary to the commitments made by the CM Sindh. The members based in Sindh, reported that the advertisements were being released by the Sindh Information on the personal whims and wishes of the officials and the genuine publications were being denied of their due share. The Executive Committee urged upon the CM Sindh to honour his commitments and direct the Sindh Information to observe merit, transparency in release of advertisements. The Executive Committee also approved the change of publisher of Daily Al-Fajr, Quetta.
The Executive Committee considered the applications for associate membership on the recommendations of respective provincial committees and decided to grant associate membership to Daily Dunya Faisalabad, Daily Dunya Karachi, Daily Dunya, Gujranwala, Daily Jehan-e-Pakistan Karachi, Daily Jehan-e-Pakistan Lahore, Daily Nai Baat, Islamabad, Daily Nai Baat Karachi, Daily Safeer-e-Punjab Multan, Daily Sarwan Karachi and Daily Ash-Sharq, Lahore.
The meeting was attended by Hameed Haroon, President, Sarmad Ali, Secretary General, S M Munir Jilani, Joint Secretary, Mumtaz A Tahir (D/Aftab), Bilal Farooqui (D/Aghaz), Dr Jabbar Khattak (D/Awami Awaz), Rahmat Ali Raazi (Weekly AZM), Shahab A Zuberi (D/Business Recorder), Umar Shahzad Khan (D/Business Report), Najamuddin Sheikh (D/Deyanat), Aijaz-ul-Haq (D/Express), Kazi Asad Abid (D/Ibrat), Javed Mehr Shamsi (D/Kaleem), Mian Akbar Ali (D/Khabrain), Aamer Mahmood (M/Kiran), Mushtaq A Qureshi (M/Naey Ufaq), Rameeza Majid Nizami (D/Nawa-e-Waqt), Salman Qureshi (M/Naya Rukh), Faisal Zahid Malik (D/Pakistan Observer), Dr Waqar Yousuf Azeemi (M/Roohani Digest), Humayon Gulzar (D/Sayadat), Irfan Ather (D/Tijarat) and Riaz Ahmed Mansuri (M/The Cricketer), Mujib-ur-Rahman Shami, CPNE President and Masood Hamid, Daily Dawn.
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