ISLAMABAD, Jan 23: A Supreme Court bench on Thursday issued notice to the Attorney-General on the constitution petition of All Pakistan Newspapers Society, challenging the Seventh Wage Board Award, and fixed Feb 25 as the next date of hearing.

Advocate Afzal Siddiqui informed the bench, comprising Chief Justice Shaikh Riaz Ahmad and Justice Mohammad Nawaz Abbasi, that Mr Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, senior counsel, was not present due to bad health.

Chief Justice Shaikh Riaz Ahmad asked the Attorney-General Mr Makhdoom Ali Khan, who was present in the court room, to accept the notice.

The AG then informed the court that he had represented newspapers employees in 1993 in a similar case, in which it was held by the Supreme Court that the petition was not maintainable.

Chief Justice Shaikh Riaz Ahmad observed that he should not worry about his previous appearance and should appear in his capacity as Attorney-General.

Newspaper employees were represented by Mr Abid Hasan Minto and Mohammad Akram Shaikh.

Mr Akram Shaikh, representing PFUJ (Dastoor), asked the court to fix the petition for hearing which was filed more than six months ago. He said the owners of the newspapers were not implementing the Seventh Wage Board Award which had become applicable 31 months ago.

The court room was packed to capacity as a large number of newspaper employees had turned up, including I.H. Rashed, Abdul Hameed Chhapra, C.R. Shamsi, Pervez Shaukat and Fauzia Shahid, Mohammad Saeed, Zakir Ansari, Haji Ibrahim.

The court first fixed Feb 17 as the next date of hearing but when it was pointed out by Advocate Afzal Siddiqui that Abdul Hafeez Pirzada would return from the USA on Feb 24, it changed the date of hearing to Feb 25.

The petitioners association stated that the matter of the Wage Board Award was a matter of public importance as the Newspaper Employees Condition of Service Act 1973 was violative of fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 8 (law inconsistent with or in derogation of Fundamental Rights to be void); Article 9, (right to life, liberty, and security of person; Article 14, (dignity of man); Article 18 (freedom of trade, business, or profession); Article 19, (freedom of press); Article 23 (right to enjoyment of property); and Article 25 (safeguards and equality of persons).

The petition filed by 24 members of the APNS has impleaded the federal government, Seventh Wage Board Award chairman, Justice (retd) Raja Afrasiab Khan, employees’ members on the Seventh Wage Board, Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, All Pakistan Newspapers Editors Council, Implementation Tribunal Newspaper Employees, and the National Industrial Relations Commission. The Attorney-General for Pakistan has been pleaded as proforma respondent.

The petitioner stated that classification of other employees of newspaper establishments along with the working journalists was patently discriminatory and unreasonable.

The petitioner stated that even if it was accepted that the legislature was competent to enact the act there was no justification for extending its application to non-working journalists.

It further stated that the act conferred excessive powers upon the chairman of the Wage Board Award. By investing a single individual with the power to determine the condition of service of newspaper employees, the act had destroyed the freedom of the Press as guaranteed under Article 19 of the Constitution, the petitioner stated.

The act, the petitioners stated, has failed to provide even a single right of appeal against the decision of the chairman. The wage board awards, the petitioners stated, has imposed “unbearable financial burden” on the newspaper industry, resulting into the closure of many newspapers in the last three decades.

The petitioners prayed the apex court to declare the Newspaper Employees Conditions of Service 1973 as violative of fundamental rights. It further prayed that the Seventh Wage Board be declared as of no legal effect and issue permanent injunction prohibiting the enforcement of the Award.