ISLAMABAD, JULY 01 (DNA) -The All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) has expressed its profound concern that the directive of the Prime Minister for payment of outstanding dues of print media by June 30, 2019, has not yet been implemented, stated a press release of APNS.

Sarmad Ali, Secretary General, APNS announced the decisions of the Executive Committee which met at Islamabad chaired by Ms. Rameeza Majid Nizami, Senior Vice President of the Society.

He stated that the Executive Committee noted with concern that despite the directives of the Prime Minister, the Federal Government has so far paid about Rs.14 Crores towards print media dues out of agreed amount of Rs.91 Crores. The Executive Committee urged upon the Federal Government to expedite the process of payment so that the liquidity problem of the print media could be solved.

The Executive Committee approved the report of the Awards Committee headed by Mr. Shahab Zuberi and decided to hold 24th Awards Ceremony and annual dinner in the end of August 2019.

The Executive Committee was apprised that the KPK Information Minister had agreed to withdraw the Sales Tax and the registration fee on newspapers but the decision has not yet been implemented.

The Executive Committee urged upon the KPK government to stop recovering tax dues from newspapers and withdraw the registration fee at the earliest.

The Executive Committee also noted that some accredited advertising agencies despite receiving the payments from the Federal and / or provincial governments have not cleared the dues of member publications. It was decided that the respective governments be requested to blacklist such agencies for release of media. The Committee also decided to request PID and provincial Information Departments not to release advertisements through the agencies suspended by APNS on default. The Executive Committee formed a Recovery Committee headed by Mr. Khushnood Ali Khan to negotiate and take steps for recovery of payment from defaulter agencies.

The Executive Committee considered the applications of Associate Membership and decided to grant application of Daily Nawa-e-Azad, Multan, Monthly Engineering Post, Lahore and Monthly Hospitality Plus, Lahore. The Executive Committee also considered the appeal for full membership and granted the appeal of Daily Jhoke, Multan.

The meeting was attended by the following :Rameeza Majid Nizami, Sr. Vice President, Mumtaz A. Tahir, Vice President, Sarmad Ali, Secretary General,  Syed  Muhammad  Munir  Jilani,  Joint Secretary,  Shahab  Zuberi,  Finance Secretary,  Syed Sajjad Bokhari (Daily Abtak), Mohsin Bilal Khan (D/Ausaf), Waseem Ahmed (Daily Awam, Quetta), Ansar Mahmood Bhatti (Monthly Centre Line), Naveed Chaudhry (Daily City42), Ms. Fauzia Shaheen (Monthly Dastak), Muhammad Waqaruddin (Daily Dunya), Syed Akbar Tahir (Daily Jasarat), Javed Mehr Shamsi (Daily Kaleem), Mohammad Aslam Leghari (Daily Kawish), Syed Ayaz Badshah (Daiily Mashriq, Peshawar), Shakir-ur-Rehman (D/Mashriq, Quetta), Sardar Khan Niazi (Monthly Naya Rukh), Rukhsana Saulat Saleemi (W/Nikhar), Usman Shami (Daily Pakistan, Lahore), Gohar Zahid Malik (D/Pakistan Observer), Khushnood Ali Khan (D/Sahafat), Humayon Gulzar (D/Sayadat), Irfan Athar (D/Tijarat, Lhr.), Syed Haroon Shah (D/Wahdat), Javid Ahmad (D/Atemad)  and Abdullah Daad (D/Sindh Sujaag).

Mehtab Khan (D/Ausaf), Imran Athar (D/The Business), Bilal Mehmood (D/Nawa-i-Waqt), Tahir Mughal (Daily Nawa-i-Pak) and Rao Amjad Iqbal (D/Har Lamha) attended as special observers.=DNA

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