19 Mar, 2010
SINDH HIGH COURT RESERVED JUDGMENT – ABOUT VIRES OF THE NEWSPAPER EMPLOYEES (CONDITIONS OF SERVICE) ACT, 1973
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SINDH HIGH COURT RESERVED JUDGMENT – ABOUT VIRES OF THE NEWSPAPER EMPLOYEES (CONDITIONS OF SERVICE) ACT, 1973
(Hearing of Wage Board Award adjourned by April 5)
KARACHI: A division bench of Sindh High Court (SHC) reserved judgment in a petition filed by the APNS and the media owners, challenging vires of the Newspapers Employees (Conditions of Service) Act 1973, after hearing detailed arguments of the counsel for All-Pakistan Newspapers Society), Pakistan Herlad Publications Limited (Daily Dawn), Deputy Attorney General, Mian Khan Malik, counsel for Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) Shehanshah Hussain, Pakistan Herald Workers Union counsel Faiz Gangro and Jang Employees Union Counsel Akhtar Husain.
The bench, comprising Mr. Justice Mushir Aalam and Mr. Justice Aqil Abbasi, resumed hearing of three separate writ petitions filed by media owners’ organisation APNS through which they inter-alia challenged the validity of the Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) Act 1973, vires and justification of 7th Wage Award and the powers of the Implementation Tribunal for Newspaper Employees (ITNE), Islamabad.
The litigation was initiated by the media owners since the announcement of the 7th wage award. The award was supposed to the operative from July 1, 2000, but is still in the pipeline and could not be implemented.
The media owners at their own as well as their organisation APNS are agitating various judicial forums and successfully delaying the implementation of the 7th wage award by getting and securing restraint orders from the courts of law on various pretexts and misrepresentations, as well as wrong interpretation of law.
Not only this, media owners made the ITNE literally inoperative for proceeding against media owners on charge of the non implementation of 7thwage award by getting restrain orders from the Sindh High Court, even without notice to the PFUJ or any workers Union any where in Pakistan.
The media workers are suffering for over a decade and are being forced by newspaper owners to work on salary package of 6th WBA under which the minimum salary and benefits for newspaper employees were fixed keeping in view prices of daily use items, POL, electricity, gas, etc. prevailing in the early 1996.
Miseries of media persons still remain unresolved and they are being paralysed by media owners by employing various unlawful, immoral, unethical, illegal tactics with the jugglery of making the law inoperative, ineffective for personal gains and advantages.
Today, the counsels for media workers and Deputy Attorney General argued before the divisional bench that the stance taken by the newspaper owners that “the constitutional mechanism under the Nicosa 1973 is against the fundamental rights and is a discriminatory law” was nothing but distortion of the fact as well as wrong notion and misinterpretation of the right of freedom of expression.
They further argued that the Federal Government and Provincial Governments are bearing almost 70 per cent of the financial burden in the wake of implementation of 7th wage award in the shape of increase in wages and other fridge benefits of the employees.
They further argued that the government is also providing a number of concessions in the shape of taxes, import duties, levies of various duties and other incentives to media owners with an objective to financially help them out so that they implement the wage board decision and extend financial benefits to their respective workers.
They also argued that media owners have already implemented six wage awards, out of 7, and in this back-drop too it appears that they are just prolonging their lawful obligation of the implementation of the wage award by taking shelter under frivolous litigations.
The learned divisional bench of SHC after hearing the arguments of the parties reserved its judgment.
In another writ petition, through which the newspaper owners challenged the powers of ITNE, could not be heard as the court time was over.
The court fixed the next date of hearing by April 5, 2010.
Shamsul Islam Naz
Secretary General
PAKISTAN FEDERAL UNION OF JOURNALISTS
12-Nazimuddin Road, F-6/1
Islamabad, Pakistan
Phone Office +92(0)51 2870220-1
Facsimile +92(0)51 2870223
Cellular +92(0)300 8665523
http://www.shamsulislamnaz.com
http://www.pfuj.pk
