KARACHI: The Sindh committee of the All Pakistan Newspapers Society has condemned what it has described as inordinate delay by the Sindh Information to clear the long outstanding dues as well as dues relating to 2015 despite clear assurances by the Sindh government and the APNS notice to the Adviser to the Chief Minister on Information

At a meeting held here on Monday, the committee expressed dismay over the non-payment of dues to member publications based in Sindh for the period from the year 2010 to December 2014 and those for the current year. The dues amount to Rs53 crores whereas requests to the adviser to the chief minister and the secretary information ignored and as a result the dues accumulated to over Rs63 crores which included bills amounting to Rs10 crores for the current year.

The Sindh committee has decided that all advertisements of the Sindh government will be suspended with effect from December 15 and therefore, no ad in the issues of December 16 will be published. The committee asked all accredited advertising agencies that during suspension, no advertisement of the Sindh government should be released to APNS and or non-APNS publications. Otherwise, the committee warned, their accreditation will be terminated.

The committee also decided that if any non-APNS publication published the advertisements of the Sindh government, it would stand debarred from the membership of the APNS. The committee reiterated its demand that to check corruption in release of advertisements, data of advertisements should be posted on the website of the Sindh Information.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2015