KARACHI: The annual general meeting (AGM) of the APNS General Council was here Tuesday at APNS House.
The meeting unanimously re-elected Senator Sarmad Ali as President, Nazafreen Saigol Lakhani as Senior Vice President, Shahab Zuberi as Vice President, Muhammad Athar Kazi as Secretary General, Mohsin Bilal as Joint Secretary and Naveed Kashif as Finance Secretary of the Society.
The AGM was held under the chairmanship of Senator Sarmad Ali. The council unanimously approved the report of the Executive Committee for the year 2025-2026 as well as the annual accounts of the society for the year 2025.
The AGM in a resolution, expressed its profound concern on the state of print media due to the present geo-political and economic situation, which has caused severe financial crisis for newspapers, many of them being on the verge of collapse. In this situation, the media expected support from the government to brave the financial crunch.
The AGM urged the federal government to implement the decision of Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif approved in his earlier tenure to increase the government advertisement rates.
The members also requested the federal and provincial governments to pay the long outstanding dues of newspaper industry, increase the quantum of advertisements and allocate a separate share of print media in the advertising budget so that the newspaper industry becomes able to survive in the present situation.
The meeting adopted a resolution, showing its dismay over ban on the federal and provincial government ads to Dawn Media for last 17 months. The council noted that the newspaper is facing existential survival issue due to denial of government advertisements, saying that consistent denial of advertisements to the group is unjust and unfair. The meeting unanimously expressed its solidarity with Dawn Media Group in the hour of financial strangulation.
The general council attended by 118 members from across the country, formed an Election Commission headed by Mumtaz Ahmed Phulpoto with Ali Bin Younus and Nasir Dad Baloch as members. The Election Commission conducted the election of the Executive Committee for the year 2026-27.
Following dailies and magazines were elected un-opposed of the Executive Committee of the APNS for the next tenure: Daily Aghaz, Daily Business Recorder, Daily Dawn, Daily Deyanat, Daily Jasarat, Daily Jiddat, Karachi, Daily Dunya, Daily Jang, Daily Khabrain, Daily Nawa-i-Waqt, Daily Pakistan, Lahore, Daily Tijarat, Daily Ausaf, Daily Sahafat, Daily Awam (Quetta), Daily Mashriq (Quetta), Daily Mashriq (Peshawar), Daily Wahdat, Daily Kaleem, Daily Kawish, Daily Aftab (Multan), Daily Business Report, Daily Paigham, Daily City 42 Daily Pakistan Observer, Daily Halchal, Daily Sayadat on daily seats and Monthly Dastak, Monthly Naey Ufaq, Monthly Naya Rukh, Weekly Tabeer, Monthly Centre Line, Weekly AZM and Fortnightly Ibrat Magazine elected on periodical seats.
The new Executive Committee elected Zahida Abbasi of Daily Nau Sijj, Karachi on woman publishers’ seat. The newly-elected Executive Committee appreciated the performance of the Election Commission for conducting the elections.
