Under The Rules of Business 1973 and under Cabinet Decision, circulations audit of any publication was declared mandatory for getting government sector advertisements.
The Audit Bureau of Circulation, Ministry of Information, Broadcasting & National Heritage, Government of Pakistan is responsible to assess the circulations of the newspapers and periodicals on yearly basis, and issues certificates, enabling them to be placed on the Central Media List to get rates for the public sector advertisements on the basis of ABC figures.
To implement Supreme Court of Pakistan’s Short Order, Media Commission’s Recommendations and the Government’s vision of transparency; the processes of the Bureau have been automated to purge dummy newspapers/periodicals, make ABC’s certification a credible benchmark for both advertisers and advertising agencies, and to further help strengthen genuine press, leading to good governance and improve dissemination of information.
For the deployment of the system, training sessions were held for the members of Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) and All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) in Karachi and Lahore. Further, trainings are also being imparted to the ABC officials.
Current Status
The current status is as follows:
- Publications registered: 50+
- Publication profile submitted: 20+
- Audit request submitted: 15+
- Audit in-progress: 10+