August 3, 2003	Sunday	Jumadi-us-Sani 4, 1424

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KARACHI, Aug 2: The All-Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) has rejected four key contentions in the federal information ministry statement published on Saturday.

A press release quoting APNS Secretary-General Mohammad Aslam Kazi says: The ministry of information has not settled the matter with respect to new press laws issued in November 2002 by the pre- democratic transitional administration. Specifically in a meeting of November 7, 2002, wide-ranging amendments in the freedom of information law were proposed by the representatives of the APNS and the CPNE. Almost 10 months later, the cabinet division and the ministry of information have been unable to provide the promised amendments in the rules.

Furthermore, the proposed amendments that could not be brought under the rule, such as the four sub-sections of the notorious Section 8 of the law which specifically relate to umbrella exclusion of records from public purview, were to be amended through an ordinance subsequent to discussions at a meeting to be held two weeks after the elections. No such meeting was held.

Contrary to the ministry’s contention, the APNS has not been taken into confidence by the ministry in formulating the panel of names for the office of chairman of the Press Council.

It is regrettable that in defence of the federal information ministry’s reinvigorated centralized advertisement release policy, its spokesman has confessed to reaffirmation of the previous centralized advertisement policy that was a brainchild of Ayub Khan’s martial law and was issued concurrently with the notorious Political Parties Act and Press and Public Ordinance in 1963.

How can a ministry functioning under a democratic dispensation wax eloquent about a centralized advertisement policy that was used to bloody the press?

The information ministry should concentrate on its ostensible task of removing impediments to the free flow of information in the new democratic dispensation instead of holding caucuses with conspiring publishers and editors that seek to destabilise the CPNE which is a professional editors body.

The APNS has urged the president and prime minister to ask the information minister to sit down with the APNS and the CPNE and resolve contentious issues that pollute press-government relations.