The Prime Minister has directed the Information Ministry to expeditiously finalise recommendations to solve the print media problems, APNS spokesman said. Kazi Asad Abid, APNS Secretary General, has announced that on December 4, 2006 at Islamabad, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz received an APNS delegation, headed by its President, Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman.
The delegation apprised the Prime Minister about the problems faced by newspapers and periodicals. The APNS President invited Prime Minister's attention that in the last meeting held on May 27, 2006 several decisions were taken by the Prime Minister but so far the decisions have not been implemented.
He pointed out that since 2002, the agenda to amend and improve the press laws, especially the Freedom of Information Ordinance and the Defamation Ordinance has not been accomplished. The ministries, despite various assurances and decisions have not yet initiated a meaningful dialogue to review the press laws. He also pointed that amendments to Newspaper Employees (Condition of Service) Act 1973 were also pending since long.
The APNS pointed out that to cope with the pace of development in the communication sector, the print media needs institutes for training of journalists, managerial and marketing personal and newspaper industry. The Prime Minister had agreed in the May 2006 meeting that the Ministry of Information would organise such training programs but so far no progress has been made.
The APNS President apprised the Prime Minister of the problems regarding exemption from GST etc on newsprint import, withdrawal of the recent amendments in the Finance Bill 2006 wherein the newspapers were brought in the Final Tax Regime. He also placed the problems arising out of the existing advertising policy and the practices of the PID. He suggested that the Central Media Policy be finalised in consultation with APNS.
The Prime Minister patiently heard the points of view of the APNS delegation and constituted a Committee headed by APNS President Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman comprising APNS members and officials of Law and Labour Ministries to prepare recommendations on the issues relating to the amendments to the press laws and revamping the advertising policy.
The Prime Minister also constituted a committee headed by Secretary Finance with members from the APNS and Ministry of Information to discuss and finalise APNS suggestions on exemption of newspapers from Final Tax Regime, withdrawal of GST on imports of newsprint etc.
The Prime Minister advised Secretary Information to immediately plan the project for training of media men. The APNS delegation thanked the Prime Minister for prompt decisions and hoped that then decisions would be implemented in letter and spirit.
Kazi Asad Abid said that earlier, in the morning, the Executive Committee of APNS held its meeting, chaired by APNS President Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman. The meeting considered the situation arising out of last week's incident wherein the Akhbar Farosh Federation, without any notice, had decided not to lift Daily Nawa-i-Waqt and Daily The Nation in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The Executive Committee strongly condemned the arbitrary action of the Federation and resolved that such actions taken without consulting the newspaper or the relevant Committee of APNS was tantamount to blackmailing, which should be strictly avoided in the interest of industrial peace.
The Executive Committee directed its Distribution & Retail Market Committee, headed by Arif Nizami, to review the situation and prepare its recommendations, including alternative distribution systems of newspapers for consideration of the Executive Committee.
The Executive Committee considered the report of its subcommittee under Dr Jabbar Khattak on exemption of newspapers from Final Tax Regime. The Committee noted that the overwhelming majority of regional and smaller member publications have been brought into the FTR whereas all member publications were already in the tax net. The Ordinance was disastrous for the print media and requested the CBR to withdraw the related amendment in the Finance 91112006. The Executive Committee approved the list of holidays for 2007. The meeting was attended by the following:
Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman President, Mujeeb-ur-Rahman Shami Sr. Vice President, Inquilab Matri Vice President, Kazi Asad Abid Secretary General, Masood Hamid, Joint Secretary, Anwer Farooqui Finance Secretary, Mumtaz A. Tahir (Daily Aftab), Mehtab Khan (Daily Ausaf), Waseem Ahmed (Daily Awam, Quetta), Dr Jabbar Khattak (Daily Awami Awaz), Arshad A. Zuberi (Daily Business Recorder), Abdul Rashid Ghazi (D/Business Report), Siddiq Baluch (D/Balochistan Express), Syed Faseih Iqbal (D/Balochistan Times), Sharif Rarooq (Daily Jihad), Javed Mehr Shamsi (D/Kaleem), Imtenan Shahid (D/Khabrain), Aamir Mahmood (M/Kiran), Adeeb Javedani (M/Moon Digest), Syed Sajjad Bokhari (D/Musawat), Arif Nizami (D/Nawa-i-Waqt/The Nation), Mushtaq Ahmed Qureshi (M/Naay Ufaq), S.M. Munir Jillani (D/Paigham), Khushnood Ali Khan (D/Sahafat), Jamil Athar (D/Tijarat, Sargodha) and Pir Sufaid Shah Hamdard (D/Wahdat), Syed Sarmad Ali of Daily Jang, Zahid Malik of Daily Pakistan Observer and Ghulam Nabi Chandio of Daily Pak, Karachi attended the meeting as special observers.-PR