18 September 2004	Saturday	02 Shaban 1425

ISLAMABAD, Sept 17: Federal Minister for Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis Ghulam Sarwar Khan has said the introduction of labour-friendly amendments to the labour laws is one of the goals being pursued by his ministry during the current financial year.

He was speaking here at a seminar on "Freedom of Press and Labour Rights", organized by the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and All Pakistan Newspaper Employees Confederation (Apnec).

The event was aimed at paying tributes to the late journalist and former president of the PFUJ, Nisar Usmani, for the invaluable services he had rendered for the freedom of press by not bowing to dictators and generals.

Mr Khan said Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had asked all the ministries to submit to him their list of targets to be achieved during the ongoing financial year. Therefore, his ministry had also set up some goals. Prominent among these were the targets relating to introducing labour-friendly amendments to the Industrial Relations Ordinance (IRO), 2002, he said.

Similarly, the wage board issue would also be solved by holding talks with all the stakeholders, he said. He also appreciated the services of late Mr Usmani and termed him a man of character and great ideals.

He said freedom of press was vital for keeping checks and balances in every society, but journalists should also realise the ethics of their profession and come up with balanced news stories.

Leader of Opposition in Senate Raza Rabbani said the present situation in the country compared to the time of Mr Usmani was not much different. The present government, he said, had imposed various 'black laws' like IRO, 2002, and was further introducing amendments to the Defamation Law.

If implemented, the amended Defamation Law would put an end to even positive criticism by the journalists and compel the media persons to resort to "self-censoring" in a bid to save themselves from legal complexities and punishments.

The present government, he alleged, had a record of imposing black laws and preventing the journalists form highlighting the true picture of the society and exposing big fish.

He said they were about to table two private bills in Senate, seeking amendments to the Section 27 B of the Bank Company Ordinance and Section 2 A of the Services Tribunal Act.

Mr Rabbani said the labourers should never attach high hopes to the present setup. Because, the prime minister, in his capacity as the finance minister, had already taken various measures on foreign directives to safeguard the interests of the corporate outsiders in Pakistan, he alleged.

There were no activities of trade unions in the country at present, which could be attributed to the measures taken by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz when he was finance minister, he added.