By Our Correspondent

FAISALABAD: Daily wagers of Government College University Faisalabad (GCUF) on Thursday staged a demonstration on Thursday against the university administration for terminating their services from the university. They sat in coffins and chanted slogans against the university administration.  Rashid Bandesha, president of the All Pakistan Clerks Association and Employees Welfare Association led the protest at Chenab Chowk and blocked the road for more than two hours.Bandesha said that the university administration on the directives of Vice Chancellor Dr Zakir Hussain not only kicked out about 150 employees from grade 1 to 16, but also converted 45 contractual employees to daily wage at the rate of Rs274 per day. He said that the employees had repeatedly requested the VC to review the decisions but in vain. GCUF Security Supervisor Rana Masroof reached the scene and tried to negotiate with the protestors, but they did not stop. Gulberg Station House Officer Bilal Cheema also arrived to disperse the protestors. They said protests would continue until termination notices were revoked.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 3^rd, 2012.

By Web Desk

	KARACHI: The Green Panel made a clean sweep of the Karachi Union of Journalists’ (KUJ) elections with GM Jamali being elected the president and Faheem Siddiqui the general secretary. The following are the results provided by the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ): President: GM Jamali (446 votes); Vice Presidents: Anees Hamdani (410) and Rafiq Bashir (379); General Secretary: Faheem Sidduqui (416); Treasurer: Wajid Raza Isfahani (443); Senior Joint Secretaries: Rafiq Baloch (463) and Muhammad Ali Hafeez (399). Members of the Executive Council elected were: Vakeel Rao (541), Shaher Bano (523), Asif Sheikh (522), Anjum Alam Wahab (494), M. Asghar (432), Muhammad Khurram (432) and Rahib Gahoo (422). Elsewhere, the Democrats Panel swept the Punjab Union of Journalists (PUJ) elections, Rana  Azeem (Daily Khabrain) being elected the president. Azeem polled 396 votes to defeat his rival Qamar ul Zaman Bhatti of the Unity Panel who got only 88 votes. Others elected were: Vice Presidents: Hafiz Abdul Wadood (Daily Ausaf) and Amir Sohail (FM 103); General Secretary: Waseem Farooq (CNBC); Joint Secretaries: Mian Shahid Nadeem (Waqt TV) and Rana Shahzad (Daily Mashriq); Finance Secretary: Mudassar Khan (CNBC). Members of the governing body: Shahid Chaudhry, Atif Pervaiz, Sohaib Ameen, Usman Nadeem, Raheel Naqvi, Rana Naseem, Arshad Virk, Hafiz Rizwan, Salman Zubair Qureshi, Ali Shah and Imran Shaikh. In elections of the Faisalabad Union of Journalists (FUJ), Shamul Islam Naz and Hamid Yaseen were elected President and General Secretary respectively. The election process was supervised by Chaudhry Muhammad Younus as the Chief Election Commissioner while Dilshad Khan and Amjad Iqbal were the members of the Election Committee. Shamsul Islam Naz was elected unopposed as no other nomination papers had been filed by anyone. However, there was a contest between Khalid Javaid and Hamid Yaseen for the position of General Secretary. Yaseen got 69 votes to emerge successful while his opposite number had to be content with only 32 votes. Others elected were: Vice Presidents: Muhammad Nadeem Javaid and Muhammad Iqbal; Joint Secretaries: Shehzad Elahi and Shakeel Javaid; Finance Secretary: Mirza Javaid. Members of the executive body were elected unopposed. They are Ajmal Malik, Irfan Jahangir, Shehzad Maqsood Shami, Khalil-ur-Rehman, Naeem Chaudhary, Rashid Ali, Akram Aziz, Mansha Javaid, Idrees Malik and Ghulam Mustafa. In Peshawar, Arshad Aziz Malik of Daily Aaj and Yousaf Ali of The News were elected as President and General Secretary of theKhyber Union of Journalists (KhUJ).  They contested the polls held at the Peshawar Press Club from the Karkun Dost Panel.   Malik secured 177 votes while his rival Aneela Shaheen got 149.   Ali polled 187 votes and his rival Fakhruddin got 138 votes for the position of General Secretary.    The Karkun Dost Panel’s Senior Vice President Ali Hazrat Bacha obtained 211 votes while his opponent Bilal had 125.  Abdul Wadood Baig was elected Vice President with 138 votes, his opposite number Raza Prince getting only 75.   Maqsood Ahmed (180 votes), Rizwan Sheikh (221), Sibtain Bukhari (223), Arshad Khan (163), Hassan Ali (200), Diyar Khan (229), Amir Ali Shah (197), Nasir Ali Shah (178), Daud Khan (156) and Muhammad Arif Qureshi (194) were elected members of the executive body.   Progressive win lion’s share in RIUJ polls   The Progressive Panel won all but one seat in the elections of the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Union of Journalists (RIUJ) held Monday (January 30) at the National Press Club. According to Nasir Zaidi, chairman of the election committee, the panel lost the position of president to the rival Working Journalists’ Panel, Waqar Satti emerging the successful candidate with 416 votes edging Ishfaq Sajid (408). The Progressive Panel claimed all 17 seats on the governing body. The counting had to be done thrice following complaints by the Working Journalists’ Panel, Zaidi said. The total votes polled were 850. Results: President: Waqar Satti 416; Secretary:  Bilal Dar 548; Vice Presidents: Dastar Shah 493; Shehzad Malik 420; Joint Secretaries: Abdul Shakoor 537; Sehr Aslam 494 Finance Secretary: Qalb e Ali 444.

 

Pakistan’s media were thriving, better think again.

With January 2012  barely past, the New Year has already seen more than 80 journalists and support staff sacked by two media houses while a third has just joined in.

Dateline Islamabad, the capital’s so-called local daily, has now begun to layoff staff just over a year after it began publishing. Insiders say three journalists have been terminated and four others could soon be shown the door.

Published by Mustansar Javed, Dateline Islamabad is also cutting down on the number of pages from the current 16 to 12.

The publisher, a veteran Urdu journalist, also has plans to introduce a new layout in a bid to save what many observers say is a sinking ship.

At the start of the year, Arif Nizami’s Pakistan Today newspaper fired about 26 staff  whileSamaa TV sacked some 60 employees late last month.

Villager stoned to death on Imam’s call

By Shamsul Islam Naz
FAISALABAD, July 5: A man of Chak Jhumra was stoned to death on Friday by villagers on the call of a local Pesh Imam who had issued a decree (Fatwa) against the man accusing him of blasphemy.

Zahid Shah, 40, of Chak 103 JB (Barnala), about 26km from here, was booked under Section 295-B of the Blasphemy Act by Chak Jhumra police in Sept 1994 on the complaint of Maulvi Faqir Mohammad, Imam of the village mosque, for desecrating the Holy Quran and using objectionable words against the holy Prophet.

The accused was arrested and jailed. But in 1997, he was granted bail by a local court.

After his release he left the village and settled with his brother, Mohammad Naeem, in Madina Town (Faisalabad) while the case registered in 1994 against him was still pending with the court.

A few days ago, Zahid Shah returned to his village. He allegedly had an altercation with some of the locals on Thursday. When the matter was brought to the notice of Faqir Mohammad, he convened a “Panchayat” the same day.

After Isha prayers, Maulvi Faqir Mohammad made announcement through the mosque loudspeaker and urged people to come out of their houses and kill Zahid.

Scores of the villagers gathered outside Zahid’s house, dragged him out in the presence of his brother and wife Perveen, and beat him with iron rods and sticks.

When he fell unconscious, the mob dragged him to the main intersection of the village. In the meantime, people belonging to nearby villages had also reached there.

When he regained senses, Mauvli Faqir Mohammad asked the enraged mob to stone him. Zahid Shah sustained serious injuries during the stoning and died on the spot.

Chak Jhumra police, who reached the spot after four hours of the incident, neither arrested any of the persons who had stoned Zahid nor sent the body to hospital for autopsy.

Zahid’s relatives, who were shocked and terrified, kept themselves indoors and refused to get any case registered against any person. The police handed over the body to Naeem who took it to Faisalabad for burial.

A Chak Jhumra Police Station official said it was an “accidental incident” and did not fall in the purview of cognizable offence. He said when Zahid’s family members refused to lodge any complaint, the question of registering the case did not arise.

Zahid was the first cousin of Chaudhry Mohammad Tariq, Naib Nazim of Tehsil Council, Chak Jhumra. Zahid left behind a widow and a son, Khurram Shahzad.

When this correspondent visited the village, some witnesses said that though before stoning Naeem had begged mercy for his brother and promised that the accused would leave the village forever, the mob and the Imam had no second thoughts.