The Anti-Corruption Circle Islamabad has taken action against three senior officials of the Associated Press of Pakistan Corporation (APP) for their involvement in corruption, fraud, criminal negligence, and misuse of authority.
According to the 24NewsHD TV channel, the arrested officers of the APP are the Director of the IT Department Muhammad Ghauth, Chief Computer Engineer Saad Muddassir, and Deputy Director Musawir Imran.
The officials were apprehended after their pre-arrest bail appeals were rejected by the court.
Initial investigations reveal that the accused caused a loss of Rs124 million to the national exchequer through their allegedly corrupt practices.
The channel reported that they were part of the procurement committee of the APP and allegedly colluded to award a contract worth Rs113 million to a company named Artic Systems.
The financial proposal of the firm had not been approved by the competent authority, yet the officials fabricated fake minutes of the procurement committee to get the bills approved by the Accountant General of Pakistan Revenues (AGPR).
The Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) has come a long way since its inception, from being a text-only news service to its gradual transformation into a modern digital news service provider.
The APP, serving the nation since 1947 by providing an accurate, objective, and uninterrupted flow of news to the people, is pursuing a comprehensive strategy to transform the existing news operations into a forward-looking service (APP Digital) committed to providing rich news content, including text, photos, videos, and graphics, to its diverse subscribers and the public.
The Digital News, once fully mature, will serve as a rich online source of information for the latest news, reports, analytic write-ups on Pakistan, and events and issues of regional and international importance. All these services are being made available on a range of digital platforms.
Adhering to the guiding principles for the Associated Press of Pakistan, the wire service aims at providing authentic news content through its multiple platforms within the shortest possible time, to the widest possible audience.
The regular APP news service provides content in English and Urdu. It also has translation services for Sindhi, Siraiki, Pashto, Arabic, Balochi, and Brahvi languages.
APP is releasing its news photos and videos to regular subscribers through FTP, besides its web portal and various social media platforms.
Headquartered in Islamabad, APP has nine bureaus and seven stations. It has foreign correspondents in Washington, London, New Delhi, and Beijing, besides a stringer at the United Nations in New York.
APP has around 500 editorial staff and 108 correspondents at the district and tehsil levels. On average, the APP releases 30,000 stories per month in English and Urdu, 4500 in Pashto, Sindhi, Arabic, Siraiki, and Balochi languages, and around 2000 photographs and video clips.
APP has news exchange agreements with over 40 foreign news agencies, under which selected text, photo, and visual news services are exchanged daily.
Reporter: Tayyab Saif