KARACHI, March 19: The APNS general council has rejected any arbitrary amendment to the agreed draft on press laws and expressed its dismay over the un-called for delay in the promulgation of these laws and decided to devise appropriate actions to press the government for enactment of the agreed draft laws without further delay, stated a resolution of the society, says an APNS press release.

Kazi Asad Abid, secretary-general APNS, released the resolutions and decisions of the council held in Karachi on March 16, under the chairmanship of Hameed Haroon.

The general council has noted with concern that the government intends to amend the proposed laws without consulting the APNS and the CPNE, which would not be acceptable to the newspapers industry.

The resolution stated that despite various assurances, the government has failed to promulgate the laws, including formation of Press Council of Pakistan, Freedom of Information Ord, and Registration of Newspapers and Presses Ord.

The council disapproved the record of present government on press freedom and rejected its tall claims that the press was free and the government was tolerant of criticism by the press.

The council noted that the sequence of acts by the government of Pakistan in the recent past, suggests that the government was not prepared to listen to voices of dissent and criticism.

The treatment meted out to daily Dopahr, Islamabad, daily Kainat, Karachi, and daily Janbaz Karachi is ample proof of the government’s policy against the press. This unfortunate turn has been taken while the government has committed itself to return to democratic path in October this year.

It urged upon the president to revise his government’s policy towards the press else it would reflect on the transparency of the electoral process.

In another resolution, it strongly condemned the violence against media-men and newspapers by different groups to stop the newspapers and their journalists and photographers to perform their professional duties.

It noted that in recent past, daily Paigham, Sahiwal was ransacked by hooligans, editor, daily Jang Quetta was attacked, the offices of daily Ummat and NNI in Hyderabad were attacked, the distribution of copies of daily Jang was hampered by activists of a political group, the editors of daily Kawish, Hyderabad were implicated in a fake FIR, the Ibrat office in Karachi was targetedly robbed, and the Karachi office of daily Balochistan Times was burnt mysteriously. The general council noted with concern that such incidents appear as acts of harassment to the newspapers.

The members noted that the monopoly clause of the PREMA Ord restrains the cross media ownership to deprive the print media from entering in the field of electronic media. The council stated that print media groups having sufficient knowledge, expertise, professional experience and adequate financial resources are capable to build appropriate infrastructure for electronic media owned by private Pakistani entrepreneur.

The general council viewed that the idea of cross media ownership is completely outdated and discarded in many countries. It urged upon the federal government to amend the ordinance, so that print media groups may have access to electronic media.

It noted with concern that the Sindh government had not cleared the long outstanding bills of member publications amounting to about Rs100m despite various assurance by the highest executives in the province. The council advised the newly-elected office bearers to take up the issue with the Sindh government.