ISLAMABAD: The chairman of the Implementation Tribunal for Newspapers Employees (ITNE) has not received a salary since his appointment in February this year.

Arshad Khan Jadoon was made ITNE chairman on Feb 15. A lawyer by profession, Mr Jadoon was a member of the Sindh High Court Bar Association and prior to his appointment at the ITNE was the deputy attorney general in the Islamabad High Court.

The ITNE is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The office of chairman had been vacant since July 2016, when retired Justice Rauf Ahmed Sheikh completed his two year term.

The ITNE is an exclusive forum for the implementation of the wage board and deals with matters related to the service of newspapers’ employees. It also issues directions to newspapers regarding the enforcement of wage-related rights.

However, the chairman of the ITNE has not received his monthly salary since his appointment.

According to sources, Mr Jadoon is not being paid due to differences between the information ministry and the Establishment Division over his pay package.

Sources said the ministry forwarded a summary to the Establishment Division regarding fixing the salary of the ITNE chairman equivalent to a high court judge. The Establishment Division rejected the summary and opined that the chairman is entitled to a salary of Management Pay Scale-I (MP-I).

Since there is a difference of over Rs400,000 between the salaries of a high court judge and MP-I, the ITNE chairman filed a representation between the ministry and the latter forwarded the case to the Ministry of Law and Justice.

According to a senior ITNE official, the organisation has been operating without any rules and regulations on the service of its own employees and members since its inception in 1973.

In 2011, the then ITNE chairman wrote a letter to the information ministry asking them to frame the rules, but there was no progress at all, the official said.

The post of ITNE chairman was vacant since the retirement of Justice Rauf in July 2016. The ministry had forwarded a summary to the prime minister which included four candidates: retired Justice Ghulam Mustafa Mengal, retired Justice Iftikhar Hussain Shah, Mr Jadoon and Shahid Mehmood Khokar. The prime minister approved Mr Jadoon for the position.

When contacted, Mr Jadoon confirmed that there were some issues regarding the fixing of his pay package, and hoped that the matter would be settled amicably in a few days. However, he added that if things are not settled the controversy would be resolved in the superior courts.

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2017