KARACHI, May 23: A three-day national conference on "Urdu Press-problems and prospects", organised by the Department of Mass Communication, University of Karachi, is beginning on Monday (today).

The conference comprising eight sessions is likely to attract a good number of journalists, media practitioners, executives, publishers, researchers and academicians from all over the country.

More than 20 papers would be read by editors of various national dailies and senior teachers of Mass Communication from different universities at different sessions to be held at the Shaikh Zayed Islamic Research Centre, University of Karachi.

Chairman, Mass Communication Department Prof Tahir Masood, informed Dawn that the conference was to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali, but owing to his official engagements at Islamabad, Mr S H Hashmi would now be the chief guest, while KU Vice-Chancellor Dr Pirzada Qasim would preside over the inaugural session of the conference.

He said that Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shaikh Rashid on Saturday confirmed that he would be chief guest at the concluding session of the conference, wherein recommendations of the conference would also be presented for onward passage to the quarters concerned. Nazim of City District Government Karachi Naimatullah Khan would preside over the concluding session.

He said that entry to the inaugural session was through invitation cards, while people related to the media would be appreciated to attend the technical sessions of the conference.

The conference aims at covering various contemporary issues of the Urdu Press, including those of dailies and periodicals, their present status, organisational, legal and ethical issues and future of the print media, he added.

According to the conference's programme, among others, Farhad Zaidi, Sajjad Mir, Dr Miskeen Hijazi, M Ziauddin, Prof Nisar Zuberi, Dr Seemi Nughmana, Dr Shahfiq Jalindhari, Dr Muhammad Khalid, Dr Farman Fatehpuri, Mahtab Akbar Rashidi, Prof Zakria Sajid would also speak.