The All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) has expressed its serious concern on high-handedness of Karachi police who have ransacked and demolished newspaper stalls in various areas of Karachi. The APNS has also condemned the officials of Karachi police and Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) who have taken newspaper sellers into custody and snatched newspapers from their stalls.

In a statement issued here yesterday, Hameed Haroon, President APNS, and Sarmad Ali, Secretary General APNS, and members of its Executive Committee flayed the action of police wherein newspaper stalls are targeted and demolished in the garb of removing encroachment on the Courts orders a encroachments whereas the newspaper stalls were established with official permission since many decades.It is highly condemnable that not only stalls were ransacked, removed but newspapers were also taken into possession.

The APNS demanded Mayor Karachi, Metropolitan Commissioner and Additional IG Police Karachi to stop these actions immediately against newspaper stalls.

The APNS office bearers stated that newspaper industry is in a deep financial crisis and struggling to survive. In these hard times, such actions are perceived to close down print media outlets completely.-PR