PESHAWAR, Nov 13: NWFP Assembly Speaker Bakht Jehan Khan has said that the problems of the Printers and Publishers Council will be addressed and the government will protect its rights.

He said this while talking to a 50-member delegation of the council here on Thursday who apprised the speaker of its problems, said a press release.

The speaker told the delegation that the government would remove all apprehensions of the council members regarding the Textbook Board.

He assured them that the rates of printing of different textbooks would not be increased and the government would take steps to solve the problems of the local printers and publishers.

The delegation informed the speaker that the Textbook Board had awarded contracts worth Rs250 million to four multinational companies for printing different textbooks, affecting around 3,000 local printers in the province who were employed in the industry.