APNS elects office-bearers

KARACHI: The annual meeting of the All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) general council held on Saturday (March 02, 2024) at APNS House, Karachi unanimously elected Nazafreen Saigol Lakhani as President, Sarmad Ali as Secretary General, Imtinan Shahid as Senior Vice President, Muhammad Aslam Kazi as Vice President, Syed Muhammad Munir Jilani as Joint Secretary and Shahab Zuberi as Finance Secretary of the Society.

The AGM was held under the chairmanship of Mrs. Nazafreen Saigol Lakhani, President of the Society. The Council unanimously approved the report of the Executive Committee for the year 2023-2024 as well as the Annual Accounts of the Society for the year 2023, reported private news channel.

The General Council attended by 116 members from across the country, formed an Election Commission headed by Dr. Waqar Yousuf Azeemi with Syed Irfan Shah and Zahid Hafeez as members. The Election Commission conducted the election of the Executive Committee for the year 2024-25.

Following dailies and magazines were elected un-opposed to the Executive Committee of the APNS for the next tenure:

Daily Times, Daily Duniya, Daily Jang, Daily Khabrain, Daily Pakistan, Daily Tijarat, Daily Ausaf, Daily Nawa-i-Waqt, Daily Awam (Quetta), Daily Mashriq (Quetta), Daily Wahdat, Daily Mashriq (Peshawar), Daily Kaleem, Daily Kawish, Daily Aftab Multan, Daily Business Report, Daily Paigham, Daily City42, Daily Pakistan Observer, Daily Halchal, Daily Sayadat on daily seats and Weekly Azm, Monthly Dastak, Monthly Naey Ufaq, Monthly Naya Rukh, Monthly Centre Line, Fortnightly Ibrat and Weekly Nikhar elected on periodical seats.

There being 7 candidates on 6 Karachi daily seats, the Election Commission conducted the election. Following were elected by secret ballot:

Daily Aghaz, Daily Business Recorder, Daily Dawn, Daily Deyanat, Daily Jasarat and Daily Jiddat.

The new Executive Committee elected Mrs. Zahida Abbasi of Daily Nau Sijj, Karachi on woman - publishers seat.

The newly elected Executive Committee appreciated the performance of the Election Commission for conducting fair and transparent elections.

The AGM in a resolution, expressed its profound concern on the state of print media due to the present economic situation which has caused severe financial crisis for newspapers, many of them are at the verge of collapse. In this situation, the media expected support from the government to brave the financial crunch. The AGM urged upon the new federal government to implement the decision of Mian Shahbaz Sharif approved in his last tenure to increase the government advertisement rates. The members in the AGM, requested the federal and provincial governments to pay the long outstanding dues of newspaper industry, increase the quantum of advertisements and allocate a separate share of print media in the advertising budget so that the newspaper industry would be able to survive in the present situation.

The AGM in a resolution, expressed its profound concern on the arbitrary decision of the PID to remove 17 publications from the Combined Media List out of which, 11 publications are members of the APNS. The APNS condemned the above decision and requested the Ministry of Information to restore the publications on the media list.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari have extended heartfelt congratulations to the newly elected office-bearers of the APNS.