KARACHI: The AGM of the All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) has re-elected Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman of the Jang Group of publications, Mujeeb-ur-Rehman Shami of Daily Pakistan, Lahore, Inquilab Matri of Daily Millat Gujrati, Kazi Asad Abid of Daily Ibrat and Anwar Farooqui of Daily Aghaz as President, Senior Vice President, Vice President, Secretary General and Finance Secretary of the APNS. Masood Hamid of Daily Dawn was elected Joint Secretary of the Society.
Earlier the Annual General Council chaired by President, Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman, approved the report of the Executive Committee for the preceding year as well as the Annual Accounts of the Society.
The General Council attended by 181 members from across the country formed an Election Commission headed by Younus Riaz (Daily Beopar), Ghulam Nabi Chandio (Daily Pak) and Ikram Ghazi (Monthly Chilman) as members. The Election Commission conducted the election to the Executive Committee for the year 2006-07. Following were declared elected unopposed:
Karachi Daily Seats (six seats) Daily Aghaz, Daily Awami Awaz, Daily Dawn, Daily Deyanat, Daily Qaumi Akhbar, Daily Millat.
Lahore Daily Seats (six seats)
Daily Musawat, Daily Jang, Daily Nawa-i-Waqt, Daily Khabrain, Daily Pakistan and Daily Business Recorder.
Rawalpindi/Islamabad Daily Seats (two seats)
Daily Ausaf and Daily Sahafat.
Frontier Daily Seats (two seats)
Daily Jihad and Daily Wahdat.
Balochistan Daily Seats (two seats)
Daily Awam, Daily Balochistan Times.
Sindh excluding Daily Karachi (two seats)
Daily Kaleem, Sukkur and Daily Kawish, Hyd.
Punjab (excluding Lahore/Rwd/Ibd.) Three seatsDaily Aftab Multan, Daily Business Report Faisalabad, Daily Paigham, Faisalabad.
General Seats (metropolitan dailies), two seats
Daily Kainat, Karachi and Daily Times, Lahore
General Seats (regional dallies) two seats
Daily Tijarat, Sargodha, Daily Balochistan Express, Quetta
Periodicals Seats (four seats)
Monthly Kiran, Karachi, Monthly Naey Ufaq, Karachi, Monthly Roohani Digest, Karachi, Monthly The Cricketer, Karachi.
News & News Comments (Punjab/Frontier), One seat
Monthly Moon Digest, Lahore
News & News Comments (Sindh/Balochistan), One seat
Ibrat Magazine
News & News Comments (General), One seat
Monthly Dastak, Karachi
The Executive Committee also elected Ms Qudsia K Khan, Daily Financial Post, Karachi on woman publishers seat.
The General Council reviewed the conditions prevailing in the Industry and observed that during the year under review, the press/govt relations witnessed a deterioration and became less cordial than in the last years. The Ministry remained consistently indifferent over the pending issues relating to the print media. The Freedom of Information Ordinance was rejected by the APNS and the CPNE proposing wide-ranging amendments to the freedom of information law. The Council noted that despite a lapse of over two years the Cabinet Division and the Ministry of Information were unable to provide the promised amendments in the rules.
The Council also pointed out that the agreement between the government and the APNS must be honoured which relate to amendments to NECOSA-73, formation of Press Council, amendments to the Freedom of Information Ordinance, cross-media amendments and amendments to the Defamation Ordinance.
The General Council in another resolution reminded that the Chief Minister Punjab, Ch Pervaiz Elahi had assured to advise the Punjab government to clear the dues of member publications relating to special supplements but despite the assurances, the Punjab government has not yet cleared the dues. Further the Punjab Information Department has also failed to release normal payments against advertisement bills and these payments were delayed for months.
In another resolution, the Annual General Council of the All Pakistan Newspapers Society endorsed the actions taken by the Wage Board Committee and the Executive Committee against the arbitrary Wage Board Awards in the Lahore High Court and the Sindh High Court challenging the vires of the NECOSA 1973 and the 6th and 7th Wage Boards. The members at the AGM reiterated their resolve not to implement the 7th Wage Board Award and are prepared to take all political and legal steps to get the NECOSA 73 scrapped from the statute book and withdrawal of 7th Wage Board Award. The Annual General Council directed all its members, office-bearers and Executive Committee not to accept the formation of 8th Wage Board and no member would be nominated on the incoming Wage Board. The AGM authorized the Executive Committee to take disciplinary action against any member that violates the directives contained in the Resolution.
The APNS Council, in a special resolution, expressed profound grief over the sad demise of Mr S H Hashmi, pioneer of advertising in the country. The Council paid glowing tributes to the services rendered by Mr Hashmi to the advertising profession and in particular to the newspaper industry for which he would be long remembered as a great friend of media.
The Annual General Council expressed grief over the sad demise of various colleagues, friends and immediate relatives of members, including Mr Masood Khan, GM, Daily Qaumi Akhbar, Syed Zafar Ali Shah, uncle of Syed Ayaz Badshah, Mr Umer Qureshi, the wife of Mr Mahmood Haroon, Mrs Razia Fakhre Matri, mother of Mr Inquilab Matri, Mr Tariq Farooq, publisher, Daily Jehan Numa, Lahore and son of Mr Sharif Farooq, the sister-in-law of Kazi Asad Abid, the uncle of Mr Aamir Mahmood, Ch Abdul Ahmed, brother of Ghazi Abdul Rashid and mother of Mr Mujeeb-ur-Rehman Shami.
The General Council was addressed by members including Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman, Arif Nizami, Hameed Haroon, Mujeeb-ur-Rehman Shami, Syed Faseih Iqbal, Jamil Athar, Mumtaz A Tahir, Syed Sajjad Bokhari, Muhammad Aslam Kazi, Mushtaq A Qureshi, Dr Jabbar Khattak, Khushnood Ali Khan, Usman Arab Sati, Rukhsana Saulat Saleemi, Pir Sufaid Shah Hamdard, Waqar Yousuf Azeemi, Sardar Mehtab Khan, and Kazi Asad Abid.
