Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ms. Marriyum Aurangzeb on Monday underscored the need for bringing drastic reforms in the process regarding issuance of advertisements for both print and electric media to ensure transparency and fairness. “I have great desire to transform the entire advertising process whether it is at the level of advertising agency, or Press Information Department or newspapers,” she said while addressing the participants of the APNS Summit “Future of Advertising.” The summit was organized by All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) to deliberate on prospects and problems including delayed payments on account of advertisements. The minister said that Central Media List needed reforms on urgent basis, for which an exercise was in process at the Ministry level dealing with the concept of “dummy newspaper,” adding that the government believed in facilitating all stakeholders. Besides, an effort is also being made to revisit the definition of dummy newspaper. She said that the billing time period was very much lengthy, due to policies delays. Unfortunately, she said that allocation of budget for advertising was not realistic and the needs were met through supplementary budgets. “I have made an effort to digitalize the verification process at DEMP and PID,” Marriyum said, stressing the need of synchronizing Central Media and APNS lists, which would help resolve issues of regional dailies of different categories. After the 18th Constitutional amendment, she said that provinces had the much responsibility to look into the issues of regional newspapers, but they (regional papers) deserve their due share as they had been raising the voice of federation in every part of the country. Marriyum said that efforts were also underway to streamline issues related to Central Media and APNS lists, besides separate registration of advertisements at PID and APNS. She said that certification verification period was being extended from three to five years to facilitate newspapers. “All advertisements have been placed on the official website of PID with complete detail about number of advertisements and their recipients. While, the data about regional newspapers will be put on the website within a couple of weeks. It will ensure transparency in the entire process,” she added. She said that matters related to submission of advertisement bills and their processing was also being streamlined so that they could be cleared in shortest possible time. Stressing the need to automize and improve the functioning of Audi Bureau of Circulation, the minister said, the government went through an exercise in consultation with all stakeholders, of which ‘first-stage first-phase’ was in process to upload the data on website. Marriyum said that advertisement quota for regional newspapers had been kept intact and a policy in this regard will be announced soon. Earlier, she presented souvenirs to APNS office-bearers and session-panelists including Hameed Haroon, Sarmad Ali, Jawad Humayun, Qaiser Alam, Imran Ata Soomro, Brig (Retd.) Zubair Rehaan, Nabeela Ghazanfar, Imran Irshan, Ali Mustansar and Ashfaq Gondal. Published in Daily Times, May 15th 2018.