March 30, 2007	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 10, 1428

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KARACHI, March 29: The All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) on Thursday said that government-press relations witnessed deterioration during the current year and were now less cordial than before.

The annual general council meeting of the APNS said that the Ministry of Information remained indifferent to problems faced by the print media and issues relating to press laws remained unresolved.

The meeting pointed out that APNS’s suggestions relating to amendments to the Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) Act 1973 (Necosa-73), formation of the Press Council, amendments to the Freedom of Information Ordinance, cross-media issues and amendments to the Defamation Ordinances had still not been addressed, despite several assurances given by the prime minister.

In a resolution, the AGM endorsed the actions taken by the Wage Board Committee and the executive committee against ‘arbitrary wage board awards’ in the Lahore High Court and the Sindh High Court, challenging the vires of the Necosa-73 and the sixth and seventh wage boards.

The members reiterated their decision not to implement the seventh wage board award and ‘are prepared to take all political and legal steps to get the Necosa-73 scrapped from the statute book.’

The council directed all its members, office-bearers and the executive committee not to accept the formation of eighth wage board and not to nominate any member on the incoming wage board.

The AGM authorised the executive committee to take disciplinary action against any member violating the directive.

The AGM elected Hameed Haroon, CEO of the Dawn Group of Newspapers, Jamil Athar of Daily Tijarat, Imtinan Shahid of Daily Khabrain, Aslam Kazi of Daily Kawish, Syed Sarmad Ali of Daily Jang and Umer Mujeeb Shami of Daily Pakistan, Lahore, as president, senior vice-president, vice-president, secretary general, joint secretary and finance secretary, of the APNS, respectively.