The Annual Meeting of the APNS General Council held on March 26, 2022 at APNS House, Karachi unanimously elected Sarmad Ali as President, Jamil Ather as Senior Vice President, Shahab Zuberi as Vice President, Ms. Nazafreen Saigol Lakhani as Secretary General, Mohsin Bilal as Joint Secretary and Muhammad Awais Khushnood as Finance Secretary of the Society.
The AGM was held under the chairmanship of Sarmad Ali, President. The Council unanimously approved the report of the Executive Committee for the year 2021-2022 as well as the Annual Accounts of the Society for the year 2021.
The General Council attended by 151 members from across the country, formed an Election Commission headed by Dr. Waqar Yousuf Azeemi with Nasir Daad Baloch and Safdar Ali Khan as members. The Election Commission conducted the election of the Executive Committee for the year 2022-23.
Following dailies and magazines were elected un-opposed to the Executive Committee of the APNS for the next tenure :
Daily Aghaz, Daily Business Recorder, Daily Deynat, Daily Dawn, Daily Jasarat, Daily Jiddat (Khi), Daily Abtak, Daily Dunya, Daily Jang, Daily Khabrain, Daily Pakistan, Daily Tijarat, Nawa-i-Waqt, Daily Ausaf, Daily Sahafat, Daily Awam (Quetta), Daily Mashriq (Quetta), Daily Mashriq (Peshawar), Daily Wahdat, Daily Kawish, Daily Kaleem Daily Aftab (Multan), Daily Paigham, Daily Business Report, Daily City 42, Daily Pakistan Observer, Daily Halchal and Daily Sayadat. Monthly Dastak, Monthly Naey Ufaq, Monthly Centerline, Fortnightly Ibrat Magazine and Weekly Nikhar were elected on periodical seats.
The President , Sarmad Ali announced Ms. Rameeza Majid Nizami MD Nawa-e-Waqt Group as special representative of APNS to handle Federal matters.
The new Executive Committee elected Mrs. Zahida Abbasi of Daily Nau Sijj, Karachi on woman – publishers seat and co-opted Monthly Naya Rukh on periodical seat.
The newly elected Executive Committee appreciated the performance of the Election Commission. The members unanimously appreciated the efforts of Mr. Hameed Haroon for the reconciliation in the ranks of the newspaper industry and expressed their full confidence in his efforts.
The General Council strongly condemned the use of Federal government advertisements as a tool to strangulate the voice of dissent and urged upon the Federal Government to withdraw the ban imposed on certain newspapers. The General Council also noted that the Federal Government has curtailed the release of advertisements to regional newspapers and periodical publications and demanded that the regional quota be observed in letter and spirit in the release of Federal Government advertisements.
Earlier, the Extra-Ordinary General Council of the Society held a meeting in the morning and adopted Resolution to amend Article 1 Article 8 of the Articles of Association.
The Annual General Council elected Dr. Waqar Yousuf Azeemi and Mr. Riaz Ahmed Mansuri as member emeritus in acknowledgment of their 40 years services for the newspaper industry.
