ISLAMABAD: Federal Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb assured All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) that current government strongly believes in freedom of expression, will protect press freedom and tackle problems encountered by the written press.
The Information Minister was speaking at a meeting of the SPNA Executive Committee held in Islamabad during which SPNA President Sarmad Ali and Secretary General Nazafreen Saigol Lakhani briefed her on the problems faced. by the newspaper industry.
They said the 8th Wages Council had raised the salaries of newspaper workers by at least 146% and recommended that the federal government increase newspaper advertising rates. They regretted that the federal government did not raise rates, which led to a severe shortage of cash for the newspaper industry.
They asked the federal government to increase advertising rates in proportion to the increase in inflation. They also informed the Minister of Information of the reduction in the volume of print advertising and demanded that the volume of government advertisements in newspapers be increased by 100% so that the press industry can weather the crisis.
APNS officials also pointed out that the federal government has not settled the newspapers’ long-standing unpaid dues relating to the periods 2008 to 2013, 2013 to 2018 and from 2018 onwards despite various assurances. They said that in the previous term, the APNS had been assured that newspaper WHT reimbursements would be released, but despite reminders, these had not been paid.
The APNS also asked the government to exempt the GST on imports of consumables for the press industry. Marriyum assured the APNS Executive Committee that she fully supports and agrees to APNS’s demands to raise advertising rates and increase the volume of government advertising.
She assured that the long outstanding dues would be settled as soon as possible. She also said that the issue of GST exemption and WHT refund would be taken up with the Ministry of Finance.
The executive committee meeting was also attended by Information Secretary Shahira Shahid, PIO Mubashar and other Ministry of Information officials.
Meanwhile, an APNS delegation on Tuesday called the Director General of Inter-Service Public Relations (ISPR), Major General Babar Iftikhar. A statement released by APNS said the delegation included Sarmad Ali, Nazafreen Saigol, Mujeeb ur Rahman Shami, Kazi Asad Abid, Shahab Zuberi, Imtinan Shahid, Umar Shami, SK Niazi, Gauhar Zahid Malik, Mumtaz Tahir, Mehtab Khan, Awais Khushnood, Syed Ayaz Badshah, Haroon Shah, Waqarudeen, Waseem Ahmed, Younas Mehar, Zahida Abbasi, Ansar Bhatti, Fauzia Shaheen, Rukhsana Saulat and Sayed Nadeem Qadri.
