ISLAMABAD, Aug 11: The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and the All Pakistan Newspaper Employees Confederation (Apnec) have announced that they would launch a countrywide protest campaign from Friday against what they called delaying tactics being used by the government and owners of newspapers in the implementation of the 7th Wage Board Award.

According to a handout issued by the PFUJ here on Wednesday, journalists and newspaper employees will hold protest demonstrations in Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, Faisalabad, Multan, Abbottabad and other major cities of the country during the campaign.

PFUJ and Apnec leaders said in a joint statement that a protest campaign planned earlier by the two organizations had been postponed following the adoption of a resolution in the National Assembly on linking the release of government advertisements to newspapers with the implementation of the wage award.

Moreover, they said the prime minister had assured them that the matter would be taken to the cabinet. They said the newspaper employees had taken part in a meeting of the special cabinet committee on the issue with all sincerity.

However, they said the government had failed to fulfil its promise that in case the committee failed to find a solution, the matter would be referred to the cabinet. They said the government had undermined parliament by not implementing the resolution unanimously approved by the National Assembly.

They said that journalists and newspaper employees had been forced to come out on the road. "The government and the newspaper owners will be responsible for any consequence of the protest campaign being launched from Friday," they added. In Islamabad, a protest demonstration will be held outside the Parliament House on Friday.