KARACHI, March 31: Arif Nizami of the Nawa-i-Waqt Group and Mohammad Aslam Kazi of daily Kawishwere re-elected president and secretary-general of the All-Pakistan Newspapers Society by the newly-elected executive committee here on Tuesday.
According to a press release, the committee also elected Syed Fasih Iqbal of daily Balochistan Times, Quetta, as senior vice-president; Mumtaz A. Tahir of daily Aftab, Multan, as vice-president; Mushtaq Ahmed Qureshi of monthly Naey Ufaq as joint secretary and Waqar Yousuf Azeemi of monthly Roohani Digest as finance secretary.
The general council of the APNS welcomed an announcement made by Zia Shahid that his Editors Council had decided in principle to merge with the Council of Pakistan Newspapers Editors and set up a committee to work out the modalities. The council was informed by Zia Shahid that he had unconditionally withdrawn the cases filed against the APNS in different courts.
The general council, the press release said, condemned what it called coercive actions of the government against the press and noted with grave concern the continued ban on government advertisements to Nawa-i-Waqt, The Nation and other newspapers.
This, it said, was contrary to the government's claims about freedom of press in the country. The council, through a resolution, rejected the use of advertisements as a lever to curb press freedom.
The general council called upon the Ministry of Finance to reduce the interest rates to a maximum of five per cent on all loans to newspapers from government-controlled banks and financial institutions so that member publications might upgrade the print technology and improve their standard to face the challenges of the new era.
