ISLAMABAD: Senior Journalist Mazhar Abbas has said that though press clubs were once considered prestigious institutions with members and visitors proud of being part of them, politics have tainted their image and that of journalists.

He said the clubs have also started giving memberships to people who are not journalists.

Addressing at an event marking the second day of the Fourth National Media Conference, organised by Individualland Pakistan and Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FnF), Mr Abbas talked about the status and importance of press clubs in Pakistan.

He explained that internal politics in the clubs meant the decisions of the general body were not implemented. He added: “Fake memberships are given out to win elections. The Karachi Press Club’s card was recovered from a militant after he was killed.”

Senior journalist Mazhar Abbas says press clubs are now giving memberships to non-journalists

Another problem, he said, was that journalists nowadays did not follow the decorum of the clubs. For example, he said, press clubs should not be run with donations from the government.

He said they should finance themselves or reduce their expenses if they could not generate that many funds and that larger press clubs should support the smaller ones.

Giving an example, he said the National Press Club (NPC) in Islamabad did not act like an NPC and that it “should become a model for other press clubs and should set its membership standards very high”.

He called upon the NPC Islamabad to form a committee of senior journalists for deciding on memberships and said journalists should be given formal training. Unfortunately, he said, press clubs only focused on improving their canteens.

He suggested, “Press clubs should compile their history so new comers know more about them and that new memberships should only be given after a proper process, including interviews.

The president of the Karachi Press Club, Fazil Jamili, said that the clubs should be holding training workshops and debates about the issues journalists face. Instead, he said, they were concentrating on improving their canteens.

The canteens, too, had problems, said Mr Jamili adding that even well off journalists expected cheaper rates at the press club dining halls.

Talking about better times, a journalist from Balochistan, Shahzada Zulfiqar, said that at the time of martial law, press club would provide politicians with a space to express themselves, even if the news could not be published.

He said that the Quetta Press Club had played an important role in solving the issues between the government and doctors who were on strike.

He said there were many press clubs in Balochistan, which was not right: “The Balochistan government wanted to give Rs200,000 to press clubs in all districts but the money could not be released because there were more than one press club in every city.

They had opened in shops, in drawing rooms and in a lot of small places. There should just be one press club in every district.”

Published in Dawn, November 27th, 2015