KARACHI, Dec 11: A division bench of the Sindh High Court has issued notices to respondents in a writ petition moved by the All-Pakistan Newpapers Society to challenge the validity of the seventh wage award for newspaper employees.

The new petition seeks annulment of the award, announced in October 2001, while a petition moved earlier questioned the vires of the Newpaper Employees (Conditions of Service) Act, 1973. Both the matters were earlier raised before the Supreme Court by a single petition in the apex court's original jurisdiction.

Dismissing the petition, the SC held that it did not involve a question of public importance with reference to enforcement of a fundamental right but observed that the dismissal would not preclude the petitioner society from seeking its remedy from a competent forum.

Advocates Abul Hafeez Pirzada and Mohammad Afzal Siddiqui appeared for the petitioner as a division bench, comprising Chief Justice Saiyed Saeed Ashhad and Justice Maqbool Baqar, took up the new petition on Friday. The petition alleges mala fides in law and fact not only against the government but also against the wage board and the tribunal constituted to implement it under the 1973 Act.

The bench also issued notices in the applications moved by certain newspaper establishments to join the petition moved by the Pakistan Herald Publications Limited against the implementation tribunal chairman as co-petitioners.

The Jang group of newspapers has already been allowed to be impleaded as a petitioner. The three petitions would now be heard together on a date to be fixed by the Sindh High Court office.