Staff Reporter
Principal Information Officer Muhammad Tahir Hassan has stated that the Ministry of Information has framed an advertising policy which will be implemented after consultation with the APNS and other stakeholders. He was speaking as a chief guest at the meeting of Sindh Committee of the APNS held at APNS House and presided over by Chairman Javed Mehr Shamsi. The PIO explained the salient features of Draft Media Policy and asked the APNS to provide their suggestions and observations so that the policy is finalized in consultation with the stakeholders. He also assured the Sindh Committee members that their concerns will be addressed to their satisfaction. President APNS Hameed Haroon and Secretary General Sarmad Ali welcomed the PIO and briefed him on the concerns of the APNS on Centralized Advertising Policy. They stated that the Policy was a continuation of different schemes of the past regimes to control the media. The Policy being implemented, has barred the sponsoring clients to select their media as per their requirements. They further stated that such Policy has resulted in centralization of the decision making process of all ministries, departments and autonomous bodies, thus negated the independence of the sponsoring clients / departments. They also noted with concern that the regional PID offices have been deprived of their role of recommendations. The members of the Sindh Committee also highlighted their concern over the Policy and stated that Sindh based publications are being completely ignored in the release of advertisements by the PID. Those who attended the meeting included Younus Mehr, Vice Chairman, Shahab Zuberi, Finance Secretary, Hasan Akbar (Daily Dawn), Bilal Farooqi (Daily Aghaz), Rafiq Ahmed Pirzada (Daily Pak Sindh), Najamuddin Sheikh (Daily Deyanat), Ali Bin Younus (Daily Beopar), Zahida Abbasi (Daily Nau Sijj), Kazi Sajjad Akbar (Daily The Regional Times), Faisal Shahjehan (Daily Jiddat, Karachi), Mangal Das Arwani (Daily Hilal-e-Pakistan), Imtiaz Akhter Qazi (Daily Tameer-e-Sindh), Mumtaz Ali Phulpoto (Daily Awami Parchar), Syed Akbar Tahir (Daily Jasarat), Nasrullah Jamali (Daily Sindh), Mukhtar Ahmed Aqil (Daily Farz), Iqbal Hussain Tunio (Daily Jang), Haseena Jatoi (Daily Moomal), Naseer Ahmad (Daily Sarwan), Mansoor Korai (Daily Waka), Faisal Zahid Malik (Daily Pakistan Observer), Mubasher Mir (Daily Pakistan, Karachi) and Syed Turrab Shah (Daily Ausaf). S.M. Munir Jilani, Joint Secretary, APNS attended on special invitation. Muhammad Saleem (Daily Sindh Sujaag), Nisar Naz (Daily Sukaar) and Manzar Naqvi (The Financial Daily) also attended as observers.
