Federal Secretary for Information, Ms Ambreen Jan has assured the All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) Executive Committee that the long-pending increase in the government advertisement rates will be made and the issues being faced by the newspa-per industry will be resolved soon.
She said this during a meeting with a delegation of the Executive Committee of the APNS headed by its President Nazafreeen Saigol Lakhani and Secretary General Sarmad Ali.
Joint Secretary Information, S.M. Munir Jillani, Principal Information Officer (PIO) Mubashir Has-san and Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Pakistan Observer Mr Faisal Zahid Malik were also present during the meeting.
On the occasion, APNS Secretary General Sarmad Ali apprised the Information Secretary about the problems being faced by the newspaper industry due to the non-implementation of the decision taken by the Prime Minister Mian Shehbaz Sharif at the end of his first tenure as Prime Minister. The premier had announced an increase in the rates for the gov-ernment advertisements.
The APNS Secretary General also highlighted the issues faced by the print media related to the Minis-try of Information & Broadcasting. They include constant decline in the quantum of the government advertisements, non-payment of current and old outstanding dues, streamlining of ABC, renewal of newspapers’ registration and functioning of the Press Registration Office.
The APNS suggested that in order to resolve the issues of non-payment of current and old out-standing dues, a revolving fund should be estab-lished at the Information Ministry for payment to newspapers on behalf of sponsoring departments.
The members of the APNS Executive Committee also briefed the Information Secretary about their problems including non-implementation of regional quota, hurdles in transfer of declarations after de-mise of the publisher and establishment of PID re-gional office at Bahawalpur.
The Information Secretary informed the APNS delegation that the Ministry of Information has moved a summary for increase in rates of the gov-ernment advertisements to the Finance Ministry which would be processed shortly. She stated that the meeting of the APNS-PID Joint Committee will be called soon to sort out issues relating to ABC, renewal of registration and other related issues.
Earlier, the Executive Committee of the APNS in its meeting approved reports of the regional Press Committee, Federal Capital Committee and Metro B publication committee. The members also approved provisional accreditation to M/s Vibrant Communi-cation, Islamabad.
Later, the APNS executive body hosted a dinner to welcome Ms Ambreen Jan as new Secretary Infor-mation and bid farewell to the outgoing Secretary Information Ms Shahera Shahid. Former PIO Rao Tehseen Ali Khan, former Secretaries Information Ashfaq Gondal and Shafqat Jalil and members of the executive committee attended the dinner party.
Those in attendance were APNS Finance Secretary, Shahab Zuberi, Mohsin Seyal, Mohsin Bilal, Wa-seem Ahmed, Humayun Tariq, Ansar Mahmood Bhatti, Javed Mehr Shamsi, Syed Ayaz Badshah, Shakir Ali, Zahida Abbasi, Bilal Mahmood, Sardar Khan Niazi, Muhammad Farooq, Humayun Gulzar, Imran Athar and Syed Haroon Shah. The following attended the meeting as Special Observers: Mumtaz Ali Phulpoto, Rao Noman Ahmed, Zahoor Dhareja and Tariq Javed.
