KARACHI: The Managing Editor of Ro
znama Express Aijazul Haque has resigned from the newly elected Executive Committee of the All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) just after being electe
d to the position, protesting over the fake 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 fake lists based on inequality. Hundreds of new newspapers and magazines have published and become prominent in the newspaper industry during the last ten years but they were deprived of their right of permanent membership unconstitutionally.
He said tens of millions of rupees were spent, external pressure was exerted and exploitive tactics like threats were used during the recent election because the occupying group feared of its defeat despite the fake forged electoral lists. He said that he was elected in the elections despite this conspiracy, however, many prominent and well known personalities of the newspaper world coul
d not be elected because of the fake lists of APNS.
Well known persons like Zia Shahid (Ro
znama Khabrayn), Arif Nizami (daily Pakistan Today), Rafiq Afghan (Ro
znama Ummat), Anwar Sajidi (Ro
znama Intikhab), Dr Jabbar Khattak (Ro
znama Awami Aawaz), Kazam Khan (Daily Times), Hamid Hussain Abidi (Ro
znama Amn), Ghulam Nabi Chandio (Ro
znama Pak), Arif Siddique Baloch (Ro
znama Balochistan Express), Tahir Farooq (Ro
znama Jihad), Muhammad Haider Amin (Balochistan Times), Faqir Minthar Mangrio (Ro
znama Mehran, Hyderabad), Tanveer Shaukat (Ro
znama Ghareeb, Faisalabad), Zubair Mehmood (Ro
znama Soorat-e-Haal), Waqas Tariq Farooq (Ro
znama Jahan Numa), Nasheed Raee (Ro
znama Qaumi Awaz, Multan),
Mumtaz Ahmed Sadiq (Ro
znama Aazadi) and Shamud Duha (Ro
znama Al-Falah) fought the election but coul
d not succeed for a few votes. Thus they were deprived of the right of eq
ual representation in APNS.
A few newspaper groups have right of more than one vote according to their editions; like Dawn group 3 votes, Jang group 12 votes, Nawa-e-Waqt group 6 votes, Kawish group 3 votes, Awam Quetta group 3 votes have more than one vote despite everyone of them is one single newspaper. On the other hand the most authentic newspapers of Pakistan’s newspaper industry like Express has 1 vote (which should have 17 votes), Khabrayn 6 votes (which should be 12), Pakistan Today 1 vote (which should be 3), Daily Times group 1 vote (which should be 6), Jihad 1 vote (which should be 5, Awami Awaz 1 vote (which should be 5) and Ummat 1 vote (which should be 4).
In addition to that many newspapers which are published from many cities have the right of one vote only. Among this all 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.
Additionally, everyone knows the efforts of the specific group for many years to save the skin of a specific advertising agency which is being investigated by NAB. Aijazul Haq said that if hundreds of other eligible newspapers were not deprived of their membership unconstitutionally, his colleagues would have elected with heayy mandate and would liberate APNS from this occupying group and APNS would participate in solving the economic crisis faced by the newspaper industry. He announced that he and his colleagues will launch a struggle against formation of a fake electoral institution in APNS so that an effective strategy could be devised to solve the issues of the newspaper industry.