Express resigns after winning APNS executive committee membership

 

 

Express Managing Editor Aijazul Haque has resigned from the newly-elected Executive Committee of the All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS), days after being elected to the position in protest over the unfair electoral lists that were formed on non-equality.

He said that a group of two newspaper houses have been occupying APNS for the last two decades using unfair and inappropriate lists.

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“Hundreds of new newspapers and magazines have been published and become prominent in the newspaper industry during the last 10 years but were deprived of their right of permanent membership unconstitutionally,” said Haque.

He also stated that tens of millions of rupees were spent, external pressure was exerted and exploitative tactics like threats were used during the recent election because a certain group feared its defeat despite the forged electoral lists.

The newly-elected executive committee member argued that although he had been elected despite the conspiracies, many prominent newspaper personalities remained unelected because of the counterfeit lists.

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Well-known persons like Zia Shahid (Roznama Khabrayn), Arif Nizami (Daily Pakistan Today), Rafiq Afghan (Roznama Ummat), Anwar Sajidi (Roznama Intikhab), Dr Jabbar Khattak (Roznama Awami Aawaz), Kazim Khan (Daily Times), Hamid Hussain Abidi (Roznama Amn), Ghulam Nabi Chandio (Roznama Pak), Arif Siddique Baloch (Roznama Balochistan Express), Tahir Farooq (Roznama Jihad), Muhammad Haider Amin (Balochistan Times), Faqir Minthar Mangrio (Roznama Mehran, Hyderabad), Tanveer Shaukat (Roznama Ghareeb, Faisalabad), Zubair Mehmood (Roznama Soorat-e-Haal), Waqas Tariq Farooq (Roznama Jahan Numa), Nasheed Raee (Roznama Qaumi Awaz, Multan), Mumtaz Ahmed Sadiq (Roznama Aazadi) and Shamud Duha (Roznama Al-Falah) fought the election but could not succeed for a few votes. Thus they were deprived of the right of equal representation in the APNS.

Subsequently, a few newspaper groups have right of more than one vote according to their editions; like Jang group with 12 votes, followed by Nawa-e-Waqat group with six votes while publications like Dawn group, Kawish, group and Awam Quetta group each possess three votes. All of these newspapers have more than one vote despite each one of them being a single paper.

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On the other hand, the most authentic newspaper of Pakistan’s newspaper industry like Express has 1 vote which should actually be 17. Similarly other publication groups such as Khabrayn has only six votes instead of a fair 12 votes. Pakistan Today also has a single vote instead of three. Daily Times group is also given only one vote and deprived of its deserving six votes. The list also includes Jihad, Awami Awaz and Ummat all of which have one vote each instead of five and four respectively.

Additionally, many newspapers which are published from many cities have the right of one vote only. Amid this situation, many favoured newspapers have more than a dozen votes each while many uncountable newspapers of similar status do not have the right of similar membership.

Interestingly, everyone knows the efforts of this specific group for many years to save the skin of a specific advertising agency which is being investigated by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

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Aijazul Haque said if hundreds of other eligible newspapers were not deprived of their membership unconstitutionally, his colleagues would have been elected with heavy mandate, liberating the APNS from this occupying group and participating in solving the economic crisis facing the newspaper industry.

He also announced that he and his colleagues would launch a struggle against the formation of a fake electoral institution in the APNS so that an effective strategy could be devised to resolve issues of the newspaper industry.