KARACHI: The All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) on Saturday voiced concerns over the state of media in the country and criticised the government for its failure to clear media dues, at the annual general council meeting of the body held at APNS House, Karachi.

A statement issued by the APNS said that Hameed Haroon was elected president, Sarmad Ali secretary general, Rameeza Majid Nizami senior vice president, Mumtaz A. Tahir vice president, Syed Mohammad Munir Jilani joint secretary and Shahab Zuberi finance secretary for the year 2019-20.

The general council meeting, which was held under the chairmanship of APNS president Hameed Haroon, unanimously approved the report of the executive committee for the preceding year as well as the annual accounts of the APNS for the year 2018.

The general council expressed grave concern over the unprecedented crisis in the newspaper industry that had caused liquidity problem to all segments of print media, resulting in closure of many newspapers and unemployment of over thousands of journalists and media workers.

The council said the consistent indifference of the federal government for the newspaper industry bailout would further aggravate the situation. It was pointed out that federal and provincial governments had not paid the long outstanding bills of the media despite various assurances and commitments.

The new executive committee was advised to take up the matter with the federal and provincial governments and take appropriate steps for early recovery of the dues.

Election commission

Attended by all the 132 members from across the country, the general council formed an election commission headed by Javid Ahmed, Nasir Daad Baloch and Ali Bin Younus as members.

The election commission conducted the election of the executive committee for the year 2019-20.

Those elected for executive committee on Karachi daily seats were Aghaz, Business Recorder, Dawn, Deyanat, Jasarat and Jiddat.

Lahore daily seats: Abbtak, Jang, Nawa-i-Waqt, Pakistan and Tijarat.

Rawalpindi/Islamabad daily seats: Ausaf, Islamabad and Sahafat, Islamabad.

Balochistan daily seats: Awam and Mashriq, Quetta.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa daily seats: Mashriq and Wahdat.

Sindh (excluding Karachi) dailies: Kaleem from Sukkur and Kawish from Hyderabad. Punjab (excluding Lahore, Rawalpindi/Islamabad): Aftab from Multan, Business Report and Daily Paigham from Faisalabad.

General seats (metropolitan dailies): City 42 from Lahore and Pakistan Observer from Islamabad.

General seats (regional dailies): Ibrat and Sayadat, Bahawalpur.

Periodicals seats: Center Line from Islamabad and Naya Rukh, Naey Ufaq and Roohani Digest from Karachi.

News and news comments periodical: Weekly Nikhar from Islamabad for the seat of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; Weekly Al Akhbar from Karachi for the seat of Sindh and Balochistan and Monthly Women’s Own from Karachi for the general seat.

The executive committee also elected Fauzia Shaheen, Monthly Dastak from Karachi, on the woman publisher’s seat and co-opted Daily Dunya on the vacant Lahore daily seat.

The annual general council elected Nasir Daad Baloch of Daily Sindh Sujaag, Karachi as member emirates.

President Dr Arif Alvi felicitated Hameed Haroon and Sarmad Ali for having been unanimously elected president and secretary general of APNS.

He also congratulated other elected office-bearers and expressed the hope that the new APNS body would work for responsible and meaningful journalism and that the government-media relations would grow stronger and fruitful during its tenure.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2019