All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) has hailed the decision to lift ban on government advertisements to Nawa-e-Waqt and The Nation, stated a press release of the Society.
The APNS executive committee held its meeting on Monday under the chairmanship of its President, Mir Shakilur Rahman.
APNS Secretary General Kazi Asad Abid stated that the ban had negatively affected the government-press relations and reflected upon the track record of the government on press freedom.
He said that the decision is a welcome gesture by the government which suggests that the government has belatedly realised that the use of government advertising as a lever is counter-productive and anathema to the growth of the free press.
The APNS executive committee reiterated that the Society has always advocated deregulation and decentralisation of government advertisements and expected that in future, such practices will be avoided so as to ensure a new era of press freedom and cordial relations with the press.
The committee thoroughly discussed the unfortunate incident which took place at Governor House, Karachi on the occasion of the briefing and press conference of the Prime Minister and hoped that such incidents would not re-occur.
The committee accepted the regret of the Sindh government and expected that the governments would ensure that in future, the representatives of the fourth estate would be given due respect and esteem during official briefings and press conferences.
The executive committee adopted the report of the Annual Awards Committee and decided to hold APNS Awards ceremony in the month of November wherein the Prime Minister would be requested to grace the occasion as a chief guest. The Secretariat was advised to invite entries for journalists and advertising awards.
The committee granted provisional accreditation to M/s Advertising & Information Management (Pvt) Ltd (AIM), Rawalpindi, M/s Time N Visions International (Pvt) Ltd, Karachi, M/s Time & Space Media (Pvt) Ltd, Lahore, M/s, Focus Communications (Pvt) Ltd, Karachi, M/s IAL Communications (Pvt) Ltd, Karachi, M/s X20 Communications & Technology, Lahore and M/s Difference (Pvt) Ltd, Islamabad.
The Committee also approved conversion from associate-ship to provisional accreditation of M/s Insync Marketing & Advertising (Pvt) Ltd, Karachi, M/s. Brain Child Production (Pvt) Ltd, Karachi and M/s Add World Advertising Agency, Rawalpindi.
The APNS executive committee also confirmed accreditation of M/s Cross Check Communications (Pvt) Ltd, Karachi and M/s TNI Communications, Karachi.
The meeting was attended by Mir Shakilur Rahman, President, Mujeebur Rahman Shami, Senior Vice President, Inquilab Matri, Vice President, Kazi Asad Abid, Secretary General, Riaz Ahmed Mansuri, Joint Secretary, Anwar Farooqui, Finance Secretary, Mumtaz A. Tahir (Daily Aftab), Mehtab Khan (Ausaf), Waseem Ahmed (Awam Quetta), Dr Jabbar Khattak (Awami Awaz), Arshad A. Zuberi (Business Recorder), Abdul Rashid Ghazi (Business Report, Faisalabad), Syed Faseih Iqbal (Balochistan Times), Ms. Fauzia Shaheen (Monthly Dastak), Masood Hamid (Dawn), Najamuddin Sheikh (Deyanat), Tauqeer Mohajir (Monthly Fashion Collection), Ms. Qudsia K Khan (Financial Post), Syed Sajjad Hussein Shah (Kainat), Javed Mehr Shamsi (Kaleem, Sukkur), Mohammad Aslam Kazi (Kawish), Imtenan Shahid (Khabrain), Aamir Mahmood (Monthly Kiran), Arif Nizami (Nawa-i-Waqt/The Nation), Mushtaq Ahmed Qureshi (Monthly Naey Ufaq), S. M. Munir Jillani (Paigham), Ilyas Shakir (Qaumi Akhbar), Waqar Yousuf Azeemi (Monthly Roohani Digest), Khushnood Ali Khan (Sahafat), Khalid Mahmood Shah (Monthly Shehrag-e-Pakistan), Jamil Ather (Tijarat) and Pir Sufaid Shah Hamdard (Wahdat). Syed Sarmad Ali Shah (Jang) and Zia Shahid (Khabrain).-PR
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