Press Council to be autonomous, says Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE)
ISLAMABAD- President Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) Arif Nizami has said that Press Council will be an autonomous and volunteer body and its affairs will have nothing to do with the government. The Press Council will be formed with the collaboration of All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) and CPNE.
He said at a meeting of CPNE Standing Committee. The meeting was chaired by him. Arif Nizami said: We do not consider Press Council as something to be scared of. He further said that government-Press relations are not unpleasant as far as freedom of Press is concerned. The meeting through a unanimous resolution termed the government measures for the protection of newspapers and newsmen as unsatisfactory and demanded that equal measures be taken for all the newspapers and journals.
The meeting also expressed concern over the failure of the administration to arrest the culprits involved in unleashing terrorism in the offices of Nawa-i-waqt Karachi and Business Recorder Karachi.
The CPNE meeting demanded the enforcement of RPPO (Amended) law. The participants of the meeting also put forward some proposals, which were discussed at length. The meeting after consideration again demanded that the law for facilitating flow of information be framed at the earliest and this law be enforced with the formation of Press Council so that newspapers may not face any hindrance in publishing the news based on truth. The meeting also condemned the move for not purchasing the newspapers owing to their policy. It was also demanded that the provision of eveningers be made effective in Pakistan International Airlines (PIA).
The meeting took serious notice of the complaint letter sent to CPNE president against the constant denial of advertisements to the weekly Sha Rag-i-Pakistan. The meeting also took notice of the discrimination in the distribution of newspapers advertisements. It was decided that the Joint Committee of CPNE and APNS will call on Punjab Governor. The participants of the meeting offered fateha at the demise of the sisters of Mustafa Sadiq and Sajjad Bukhari.
The meeting was attended by Mir Shakilur Rehman (Jang), Anwar Farooqi (Aghaz), Mumtaz Tahir (Aftab), Ilyas Shakir (Qaumi Akhbar) Khushnud Ali Khan (Sahafat), Pir Sufaid Shah (Wahdat), Jamil Athar (Tajarat), Shaheen Qureshi (Pakistan Times), Syed Fasih Iqbal (Balochistan Times), Sharif Farooq (Jehad), Altaf Hasan Qureshi (Urdu Digest), Waqar Yousat Azeemi (Roohani Digest), Qazi Asad Abid (Ibrat), Javed Mehr (Kaleem), Riaz Mansoori (Cricketer), Mustansar Javed (Mashriq), Khalid Mehmud Shah (Sha Rag-i-Pakistan), Syed Sajjad Bukhari (Musawat), Mushtaq Ahmad Qureshi (Nawa-e-Nawabshah), Zahid Malik (Pakistan Observer), Zia Shahid (Khahbrain), Mujibur Rehman Shami (Pakistan), and Abdul Rahid Ghazi (Business Report).
Source: The Nation
Date:1/20/2001
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