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| September 24, 2005 | Saturday | Sha'aban 19, 1426 |
Implementation of Wage Award assured
ISLAMABAD, Sept 23: Journalists covering the Senate proceedings on Friday staged a walkout from the press gallery in protest against delays in implementation of the 7th Wage Board award for newspaper employees.
The walkout came minutes after Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz stepped into the house.
Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli and Minister of State for Overseas Pakistanis Azeem came to the press lounge and held talks with representatives of the protesting journalists in an effort to persuade the newsmen to end their boycott.
After the walkout, the Leader of the Opposition Raza Rabbani said the parliamentary committee’s file on the wage board issue and appointment of the implementation tribunal chief had been lying with the Prime Minister’s Secretariat.
Taking the floor, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, said the issue of implementation of the 7th Wage Board Award had been lingering on for too long and the government wanted to provide justice to journalists and all other stakeholders.
The prime minister said the parliamentary committee, headed by Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, had already met the owners of the newspapers. He said that he would look into the matter and check with his secretariat if the file was lying with it.
“If it is in my secretariat, we will take immediate action,” Mr Aziz said.
Journalists later told the two ministers that even after the prime minister’s statement they would not end their boycott, because they had not been given a firm commitment on actions contemplated by the government for the implementation of the wage board award.
Newsmen also protested over the illegal allotment of plots to various people from the journalists’ quota in the G-14 Sector of Islamabad. They alleged that Pakistan Television employees had been allotted plots despite the fact that they were working in a corporation and had their own separate quota. They alleged that plots had been given to those PTV employees who had been covering the activities of government functionaries.
Representatives of journalists told the ministers that they had lost all hope on the wage board issue and alleged that the government had become a party to the issue as it had joined hands with newspaper owners. They severely criticized the government for not taking the issue seriously and using delaying tactics by putting the matter before various committees.
They asked the ministers to take action against newspaper owners for not implementing the wage board award and cancel their TV channel licences.
Later, Ms Tahirkheli told the Senate that a committee had been constituted to scrutinise the allotment of plots to journalists in G-14 sector and submit its report in a week. She said the committee would also suggest action against those who had obtained plots on the basis of forged documents. She said the matter pertaining to the allotment of plots to 16 PTV employees would also be looked into.
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