Karachi : The Federal Government firmly stands for the promotion of print media and the issues confronted by
newspapers will be amicably addressed,” stated Mr. Attaullah Tarrar, the Federal Minister for
Information & Broadcasting.
Mr. Tanvar was addressing a meeting of the Executive Committee of the All Pakistan Newspapers Society
at Islamabad chaired by its President Ms. Nazafreen Saigol Lakhani, Mr. Sarmad Ali, Secretary General
APNS welcomed the Minister and apprised him about the problems being faced by the print media.
These included long pending notification of 35% increase in the government advertisement rates
approved by the Prime Minister in his last tenure. He reminded that the Prime Minister during his last
meeting with APNS office bearers had given an assurance that an amount of Rs. 50 crore will be
released to newspapers before Eid as initial payment of outstanding dues of the print media against
advertising released by the federal government. However, the print media was paid Rs 4.6 crores only.
The APNS office bearers also explained the hardship faced by members in getting renewal of their
registration by the Press Registrar office due to a highly complicated procedure practiced by the Press
Registrar and requested that the procedure be made hassle free and that the registration be made one
time as stipulated in the law. The APNS members requested that the regional quota be implemented in
letter and spirit and no publications other than regional newspapers be given advertisements from this
quota. They also requested that in the forthcoming budget GST, custom and import duties on imports of
newspaper consumables like ink and printing plates be exempted.
Mr. Atta Ullah Tarrar assured that the issues being faced by the newspaper industry will be addressed to
the satisfaction of the print media’s. He stated that he would take up the issue of increase in the
government advertisement rates with the Finance Ministry for its incorporation in the next fiscal
budget. He reiterated that the Ministry of Information had disbursed an overall amount of Rs.1.3 billion
to media outlets before Eid.
He stated that he has asked the ministry to evolve a mechanism for future budgetary arrangements for
payment of advertisement expenses. He assured that the old liabilities will be cleared in the first quarter
of next financial year. Mr. Tarrar proposed a joint committee of Information Ministry and APNS to
evolve a system for registration of newspapers. He stated that the newspapers played a pivotal role in
countering fake news and disinformation. In order to promote newspaper readership, the Federal
Minister stated that he would ask the Information Ministry to suggest to the Ministry of Aviation and
other government ministries and departments to subscribe to newspapers as in the past. In this respect
he proposed to initiate a pilot project with the Ministry of Education to promote newspaper readership
at the school and college levels in the ICT.
Earlier the Executive Committee, on the recommendations of the Advertising Committee, granted
provisional accreditation to M/s. Starcrest Communications (Pvt.) Ltd Karachi, M/s. SAP Communications
(Pvt.) Ltd. Islamabad and M/s. URS Digi (Pvt) Ltd. Islamabad.
The members expressed condolence to Mr. Ahmed Baloch, Publisher Daily Kainat Bahawalpur on the
sad demise of his mother.
The meeting was attended by the following.
Ms. Nazafreen Saigol Lakhani, President, Mr. Imtinan Shahid, Senior Vice President, Mr. Sarmad Ali,
Secretary General, S.M Munir Jillani, Joint Secretary, Mr. Waseem Ahmed, (Daily Awam, Quetta), Mr.
Mohsin Bilal,( Daily Ausaf), Mr. Humayun Tariq,( Daily Business Report), Mr. Ansar Mahmood Bhatti,
(Monthly Centre Line), Mr. Muhammad Waqaruddin, (Daily Dunya), Mr. Javed Mehr Shamsi, (Daily
Kaleem). Ms. Rukhsana Saulat Saleemi, (Weekly Nikhar), Mr. Bilal Mahmood, (Daily Nawa-i-Waqt).
Mr. Sardar Khan Niazi, (Monthly Naya Rukh), Mr. Faisal Zahid Malik,( Daily Pakistan Observer), Mr.
Humayun Gulzar, (Daily Sayadat), Mr. Irfan Ather, (Daily Tijarat), Syed Haroon Shah, (Daily Wahdat),
Mr. Nasir Dad Baloch, (Daily Sindh Sujaag),
Mr. Mehtab Khan, (Daily Ausaf), Mr. Tahir Mughal , (Daily Nawa-i-Pak) attended the meeting as special
observer.
Following attended on ZOOM.
Ms. Fauzia Shaheen, (Monthly Dastak), Ms. Zahida Abbasi, (Daily Nau Sijj), Mr. Mohsin Siyal, (Daily
Aftab), Mr. Tahir Qureshi, (Monthly Naye Ufaq).
