Committee formed to approve issuance of adverts by centre, provinces

ISLAMABAD: The federal government constituted a ‘content committee’ to approve the issuance of government advertisements to the print and electronic media, said a notification.

The notification was issued on September 17 (Monday).

The committee includes information ministers of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhuwa, Balochistan and special assistant to prime minister on media Iftikhar Durrani and Senator Faisal Javed Khan.

The notification signed by Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry stated: “no advertisement should be released to print or electronic media by the provincial or federal governments without prior approval of the committee.”

The All Pakistan Newspaper Society (APNS), earlier, in a statement has reportedly maintained that government advertising serves as the main revenue to the liquidity-starved print media. The society warned that the halt in the government advertisements will have a deteriorating effect on the sale of the newspapers.

The APNS said that print media primarily depend on revenue earned from advertisements.