KARACHI, Sept 23: The executive committee of the All Pakistan Newspapers Society which met under the chairmanship of its president, Mr Arif Nizami, decided to hold the 17th APNS awards ceremony in the first week of December in Karachi.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has been requested to be the chief guest at the ceremony, says a press release. The committee has finalized categories of the awards and a panel of judges for awards for journalists and advertising agencies.

The committee noted with concern that despite an announcement made by Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed about lifting a ban on government advertisements for the Nawa-i-Waqt, The Nation and other newspapers, the Press Information Department and the Punjab DGPR were not taking follow-up measures on the announcement.

The publications are getting only token and nominal advertisements and the routine flow of advertisements has not been restored. The committee observed that the policy to use advertisement as a lever to suppress and victimize the dissenting press should now be abandoned as it was contrary to the policy announcement made by the information minister of the Shaukat Aziz government.

The committee urged the Sindh government to restore advertisements to newspapers which were on the ban list, in accordance with an assurance given by Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim to a delegation of the APNS provincial committee.

The executive committee also noted that despite the assurances by the Chief Minister Punjab, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, the provincial government had not yet cleared the dues of member publications relating to special supplements.