The Executive Committee of the All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) held its meeting in Lahore on Thursday. APNS President Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman chaired the meeting.
APNS acting Secretary General Riaz Ahmed Mansuri, while announcing the decisions of the Executive Committee said that the members have decided to authorise President Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman to nominate APNS delegate on Press Council in consultation with the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) president, as and when the pending issues with the federal government are settled, including 7th Wage Board Award and amendments in the press laws.
The Executive Committee expressed its satisfaction over the ongoing talks process with the Joint Parliamentary Committee headed by Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain.
The Executive Committee approved the report of the secretary general on May-June clearance and decided to implement the clearance system on recovery of income tax challans from advertising agencies and clients. It also approved the report of Dr Jabbar Khattak, Convener, APNS Training and Development Committee.
The Executive Committee was apprised by the members that the Government of Punjab has failed to honour assurances given by the chief minister to clear dues of member publications related to special supplements pending for the last 10 years.
The meeting noted that Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi had assured the APNS delegation in May 2004 that the dues would be cleared by June 30, 2004. The Executive Committee noted with concern that no action has so far been taken to settle the long pending dues.
It also noted that the Punjab government has, instead, banned special supplements of provincial departments, which has resulted in financial crunch for smaller and regional publications based in Punjab.
The Executive Committee members, in a resolution, expressed concern, over the Government of Punjab announcement, to increase advertisements budget of government departments who negated this assurance, in the wake of information policy wherein the smaller and regional publications were denied the allocations of government advertisements. The Committee requested Zia Shahid to take up the issue with the Punjab chief minister for early settlement.
The Executive Committee considered applications for associate membership recommended by provincial committees, and decided to grant associate membership to the following:
Daily Barsat, Karachi; Daily Sach, Karachi; Monthly Zaree Dost, Karachi; Daily Hilal-e-Pakistan, Karachi; Daily Janbaz, Karachi; Daily Khabrain, Sukkur; Daily Khabroon, Sukkur; Daily Khabroon, Karachi; Daily Naya Akhbar, Karachi; Daily Times, Karachi; Daily The Regional Times, Hyderabad; Daily Eagle Hub, Daily Nawa-e-Watan, Quetta; Daily The Patriot, Islamabad; Daily Khabrain, Peshawar; Daily Naya Akhbar, Peshawar; Fortnightly The World Trade Review, Islamabad; Daily Musafat, Lahore; and Daily Khabrain, Lahore.
THE MEETING WAS ATTENDED BY THE FOLLOWING: Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman, President, Mujeeb-ur-Rahman Shami, Senior Vice President, Inquilab Matri, Vice President, Riaz Ahmed Mansuri, Acting Secretary General, Anwar Farooqui, Finance Secretary, Mumtaz A. Tahir (Daily Aftab), Mehtab Khan (Daily Ausaf), Waseem Ahmed (Daily Awam, Quetta), Dr Jabbar Khattak (Daily Awami Awaz), Asif A. Zuberi (Daily Business Recorder), Abdul Rashid Ghazi (Daily Business Report, Faisalabad), Syed Faseih Iqbal (Daily Balochistan Times), Shakil Masood (Daily Dawn), Najamuddin Sheikh (Daily Deyanat), Ms Qudsia K. Khan (Daily Financial Post), Javed Mehr Shamsi (Daily Kaleem, Sukkur), Imtenan Shahid (Daily Khabrain), Aamir Mahmood (Monthly Kiran), Syed Ayaz Badshah (Daily Mashriq, Peshawar), Syed Sajjad Bokhari (Daily Musawaat), Arif Nizami (Daily Nawa-e-Waqt/The Nation), Mushtaq Ahmed Qureshi (Monthly Naey Ufaq), S.M. Munir Jillani (Daily Paigham), Khushnood Ali Khan (Daily Sahafat), Khalid Mahmood Shah (Monthly Shahrag-e-Pakistan), Jamil Ather (Daily Tijarat), Pir Sufaid Shah Hamdard (Daily Wahdat) and Mustafa Sadiq (Daily Wifaq, Lahore).-PR