15 August 2004	Sunday	28 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425

KARACHI, Aug 14: A delegation of the APNS led by its president, Mr Arif Nizami, held a meeting with National Assembly Speaker Ch. Ameer Hussain at Islamabad to apprise him of its position on the Seventh Wage Board Award.

The delegation noted that the National Assembly on June 11 had adopted unanimously and summarily a resolution on linkage of government advertising with the implementation of the wage award. The delegation said the resolution was adopted despite the fact that APNS petitions were in the apex courts and the issue was sub-judice, says an APNS press release issued on Friday.

The delegation expressed strong reservations on NECOSA-73 and the 7th Wage Board Award and briefed the speaker about the fact that the newspaper industry was the only industry subjected to a wage board constituted by the government which was a one-man board with arbitrary powers.

The delegation informed the speaker about different meetings and agreements with the federal ministries of information and labour on the issue and regretted that the government had failed to honour its commitments resulting in litigation by the APNS.

It requested the speaker to use his good offices to prevail upon leaders and members of different parliamentary groups in the National Assembly to adopt a reasonable and rational approach to the issue.