ISLAMABAD: Two groups have practically emerged after a large number of members of the All Pakistan Newspaper Society (APNS) remained absent to boycott the annual elections.
According to details, one group refused to participate in the elections, maintaining that the APNS elections were unconstitutional as conducting polls with a ‘fake voter list’ was contrary to the democratic process and professional norms.
The group said that since many years, the voter list was being unconstitutionally compiled through membership making that was devoid of merit and based on favouritism. According to the statement, it must be clarified that the members expressed lack of confidence in the APNS annual elections after 40% of the members abstained from participation.
With an allegedly unfair and unconstitutional electoral list, the step to award many votes to one member of the organisation and just one vote to the opponents was unfair, they claimed, adding that the basis on which this member has been given the power to exercise many votes has not been accepted as they have been counted as being one member equivalent to one vote.
They complained that this result coming to the fore after unconstitutional elections is against any democratic norms of any organisation which is also the basis of some people’s interim dictatorship in the APNS.
“The process of selection instead of election in the election is repeated every year. The APNS has become a continuous slave to one specific group due to this unfair electoral process. This has manifested openly with the defection from the organisation’s basis pursues which has resulted in the permanent failure to protect the interests of the members. The monopoly of one group over the APNS has practically become the tool for some specific groups and the body has lost its image as being the only representative body of the print media,” the statement read.
