APNS elects new office-bearers

KARACHI: The APNS has elected Sarmad Ali as President, Rameeza Majid Nizami as Senior Vice President, Mumtaz A. Tahir as Vice President, Umer Mujib Shami as Secretary General, S.M. Munir Jilani as Joint Secretary and Syed Ali Hasan Naqvi as Finance Secretary of the society for the year 2016-17.

The Annual General Council, held on March 30, 2016 under the chairmanship of Hameed Haroon, the outgoing president, unanimously approved the report of the Executive Committee for the preceding year as well as the annual accounts of the society.

The APNS Council considered the government-press relations, the state of newspaper industry as well as the problems faced by member publications. The General Council, in a special resolution, noted with concern that the federal as well as provincial governments are denying government advertising to majority of genuine publications and the major part of advertising budget has been diverted to the electronic media. The members, who gathered from across the country, stressed that the governments must allocate a fixed share in advertisement budgets for the print media. They urged transparency in the release of ads by the governments and reiterated that data should be released on the website of the PID and provincial information departments.

The General Council, in another resolution, reiterated that the regional quota be strictly implemented and no publications other than regional, be allocated government advertisements from this quota. The members also directed the Executive Committee to take up the demand of minimum quota for the APNS members with the concerned authorities. The members based in Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan have also reported to the council that the information departments of the provinces have adopted a discriminatory approach while releasing government advertisements which are being distributed to irregular publications while the senior and genuine publications were being completely ignored. This has resulted in an acute financial crunch to the newspaper industry in the province. 

The APNS Council also noted that the print share in the campaigns launched by the federal government was consistently decreasing, which has considerably slashed advertising in newspapers, causing survival issues for smaller and regional publications. The council expressed its concern that the notification of approved rate increase is pending for over three years and urged the Ministry of Information to honour its commitments and issue the notification without any further delay.

The General Council, attended by 150 members from across the country, formed an Election Commission headed by Younus Riaz, Syed Hamid Hussain Abedi and Aleem Ahmed  as members. The Election Commission conducted the election of the Executive Committee for the year 2016-17. Following were elected unopposed:

Rawalpindi/Islamabad Daily Seats: Daily Ausaf, Islamabad, and Daily Sahafat, Islamabad.

Balochistan Daily Seats: Daily Awam, Quetta, and Daily Mashriq, Quetta.

Sindh excluding Daily Karachi: Daily Kaleem, Sukkur, and Daily Kawish, Hyderabad.

Periodicals Seats: Monthly Kiran Digest, Karachi, Monthly Naey Ufaq, Karachi, Monthly Naya Rukh, Karachi, and Monthly Roohani Digest, Karachi.

News & News Comments Periodical (Sindh/ Balochistan): Fortnightly Ibrat, Hyderabad

The Election Commission conducted the election of the Executive Committee for the year 2014-15. Following were elected by secret ballot:

Karachi Daily Seats: Daily Aghaz, Daily Business Recorder, Daily Dawn, Daily Deyanat, Daily Jurat and Daily Qaumi Akhbar.

Lahore Daily Seats: Daily Dunya, Daily Jang, Daily Khabrain, Daily Nawa-i-Waqt, Daily Pakistan and Daily Tijarat.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Daily Seats: Daily Mashriq and  Daily Wahdat.

Punjab (excluding Lahore/Rwp/Ibd): Daily Aftab, Multan, Daily Business Report, Faisalabad, and Daily Paigham, Faisalabad.

General Seats (Metropolitan Dailies): Daily City 42, Lahore, and Daily Pakistan Observer, Islamabad.

General Seats (Regional Dailies): Daily Sayadat, Bahawalpur, and Daily Tijarati Rahbar, Faisalabad

News & News Comments Periodical (Punjab/ KPK): Weekly Azm/ Daily Taaqat, Lahore.

News & News Comments Periodicals (General): Monthly Cricketer, Karachi

The council elected Javid Ahmad of Daily Atemad, Quetta, as member emeritus in recognition of his services for the newspaper industry. The president-elect nominated Monthly Dastak, Karachi, on woman-publishers seat. --PR

APP adds:  Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Pervaiz Rashid congratulated Sarmad Ali, the newly-elected President of APNS, and other elected office-bearers.

He said that the democratic government believes in freedom of expression and would continue to support the growth of independent media.

"Hope that the newly-elected body will continue to play its role in growth of media industry and strengthening democratic norms in the society," he said.