July 6, 2003	Sunday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 5,1424

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PESHAWAR, July 5: Pakistan needs to pay special attention to improve its human rights record if it wants to improve its image abroad, a British diplomat said on Saturday.

“The country will have to improve its human rights record if it wants to become an effective global partner,” said Michael Semple, advisor to British High Commission.

Exchanging views with the participants of a two-day training workshop, titled “ Advance Training Workshop for journalists on human rights “ here on Saturday, the advisor on human rights said that though situation had improved considerably during the past few years so far as improvement in the level of awareness about human rights was concerned, the country still needed to improve its human rights record if it wanted to improve its image internationally.

The two-day workshop, meant to raise awareness about human rights among the journalists of NWFP and adjoining Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), concluded here on Saturday.

On the second day of the workshop, three sessions were held in which two presentations were made on the state of working conditions for journalism and the rights of consumers.

In the third session, a panel discussion was arranged to discuss the problems faced by journalists and their wage structure.

Provincial minister for information Asif Iqbal Daudzai presided over the panel discussion.

Nadir Altaf, of “the Network” - a non-governmental organization, focussed on consumers’ rights in his presentation.

Nadeem Iqbal, an Islamabad-based journalist, deliberated upon the state of the working conditions in which newsmen are performing their duties. He said only eight per cent of the working journalists in the country were getting a monthly salary of Rs 15,000 and above.

Mohammed Riaz, a Peshawar-based journalist, explained the Newspaper Employees Act and the history of wage awards given for journalists.

The minister for information said that the provincial government would shortly constitute a committee comprising representatives of the working journalists and newspapers’ owners to resolve the contentious issue of implementing the Seventh Wage Award and improve working conditions for the employees associated with the newspaper industry.

At the end of the training workshop, the minister distributed certificates among the trainees including 22 journalists from Fata, Peshawar and district headquarters of NWFP.