The Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) Secretariat has announced the decisions taken at the annual general meeting (AGM) of the council held on September 7 at Islamabad Club, Islamabad.
The session decided to form a three-member committee to review and propose alterations in the CPNE constitution, and approved to form 'Media Complaint Commission' for the hearing and redressal of complaints against newspapers and press freedom.
This commission would serve as 'Ombudsman' regarding public and government complaints against press and complaints of press against government and other pressure groups.
Setting up 'Press Freedom Monitoring Desk' at CPNE Secretariat was also decided which would strictly monitor the press freedom violations from grass-roots level to federal level, and prompt notice would be taken of the same.
Publication of a fortnightly general to cover the national and international aptitude (attitude?) towards editorial issues and problems was also decided along with activation of 'Journalists and Human Rights Acquisition Liaison Committee' so that civil society, prominent journalists and APNS could be included in the struggle for press freedom.
The session was attended by over 200 members from all over the country, which is a record in the history of CPNE.
Later, the annual elections for 2004-05 were held, supervised by a three-member election commission, with Younis Riaz (Daily Beopar) as chief election commissioner, while the other two members were Ghulam Nabi Chandio (Daily Pak) and Maqsud Yousfi (Weekly Takbeer).
According to results, Anwar Farooqi (Aghaz), Dr Jabbar Khatak (Awami Awaz), Syed Sajjad Hussain Shah (Kainat), N Hashmi (Ummat) and Tahir Najmi (Express) won the six newspapers seats of Karachi, while Arif Nizami (Nawa-e-Waqt), Zia Shahid (Khabrain), Mujeebur Rehman Shami (Pakistan), Iqbal Sidho (Din), Jamil Tahir (Tijarat) and Mustafa Sadiq (Wafaq) won six seats of Lahore.
Similarly, Qazi Asad Abid (Ibrat Hyderabad) and Javed Mahar (Claim Sukkur) won two Interior Sindh seats; while Mumtaz Tahir (Aftab), Abdul Rasheed Ghazi (Business Report) and Tanveer Shaukat (Ghareeb) won three Interior Punjab seats.
Mehtab Khan (Ausaf) and Khushnud Ali Khan (Sahafat) won two seats of Rawalpindi/Islamabad; Pir Safeed Shah (Wahdat) and Shareef Farooq (Jehad) won two seats of NWFP; Fasih Iqbal (Zamana) and Wasim Ahmed (Awam) won two seats of Balochistan.
Syed Munir Jeelani (Pegham-Faisalabad), Sadique Balouch (Balochistan Express-Quetta), Zahid Malik (Pakistan Observer- Islamabad), Inqilab Matri (Millat- Karachi) and Owais Aslam Ali (PPI News Agency- Karachi) were elected on the five general seats.
Similarly, Sardar Khan Niazi (Monthly Naya Rukh) won one Digest seat from Sindh/Balochistan, Khalid Mahmood Shah (Monthly Shahrag Pakistan) from Punjab, while on the four general seats of Digests/Journals Aamir Mehmood (Kiran-Karachi), Mahmoodul Aziz (Pictorial News Review Karachi) and Mushtaq Ahmed Qureshi (Naey Ufaq-Karachi) and Waqar Yousaf (Rohani Digest-Karachi) were elected as members CPNE Standing Committee 2004-05.
One remaining Journal Seat of NWFP was allotted to Altaf Hasan Qureshi (Urdu Digest Lahore) with consensus.
Later, the CPNE Standing Committee elected Arif Nizami as President, Zia Shahid as Senior Vice President, Khushnood Ali Khan as Vice President (Punjab), Shaheen Qureshi as Vice President (Sindh), Pir Safeed Shah as Vice President (NWFP) and Saddique Baloch as Vice President (Balochistan), Dr Jabbar Khatak as Secretary General, Abdul Rasheed Ghazi as Joint Secretary and Mehtab Khan as Secretary Finance.