PESHAWAR, (Parliament Times) : In the meeting of the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (KPK Committee), demanded the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the immediate payment of two billion rupees due in the form of advertisements.
CPNE President Irshad Ahmed Arif, Secretary General Ijaz -Ul-Haq specially attended the meeting, while Caretaker Provincial Minister for Information Barrister Feroz Jamal Shah, Secretary Information Mukhtiar Ahmad Khan, Director General Public Relations Basir Rehman, Ali Khan also attended the meeting.
In the meeting, there was a detailed discussion of the problems faced by the editors and newspapers published in Pakhtunkhwa.
Addressing the meeting, CPNE President Irshad Ahmed Arif expressed deep concern over the problems faced by the newspapers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and said, “An effective mechanism for a monthly payment of advertisements should be made so that newspapers can be paid every month,”.These newspapers are a major source of employment for working journalists.
Chairman and Vice President of CPEN (KPK Committee) Tahir Farooq said, “Regional newspapers are suffering from severe financial problems due to non-payment of dues for years”.
In the meeting, the member editors also passed a resolution and demanded the government pay the dues immediately. Secretary General CPNE Ijaz-Ul-Haq said, “CPNE is ready to cooperate with the Information Department to conduct a forensic audit to account for advertising liabilities,”.
Addressing the meeting, Caretaker Information Minister Barrister Feroz Jamal Shah Kakakhel said, “Efforts will be made to solve the problems of CPNE. Journalism is two wheels of a vehicle which can not run without each other,”.
He said that if seen, the information department has paid about 16.67 million rupees to CPNE in the last year while the caretaker government has paid 10.12 million rupees in just four months.
He assured the meeting that the Information Department was taking steps to clear the arrears of Rs 1.6 billion.
Masood Khan Deputy Chairman KPK Committee, Rahatullah (Constitution), Qaiser Rizvi (Jadt), Syed Ali Nawaz Geelani (Al-Jamaat Sarhad), Wazirzada (Atbah), Mumtaz Sadiq (Azadi Swat), Arshad Khan (Aden), Jamshed (Express), Numan Khan (Frontier Star, Amjad Aziz Malik (Kusuti), Zahir Shah Shirazi (New Pakistan), Sardar Naeem (Quaid), Mumtaz Bangash (92 News), Najeebullah (Naveen Hawad), Aitzaz Hasan Shah(Medan), Tanveer Siddiqui (Aaj Peshawar), attended the meeting.
