APNS plea: tribunal restrained from taking coercive steps
KARACHI, April 26 2006: The constitutional petitions filed by the All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) in the Sindh High Court challenging constitutional wires of the Newspaper Employees Condition of Service Act, 1973, and decisions of Wage Boards made there under came up for hearing on Tuesday April 18 before the division bench comprising Mr Justice Sarmad Jalal Usmani and Mr Justice Gulzar Ahmed.
Hearing of main petitions could not proceed due to non-availability of the Attorney General and PFUJ counsel. However the court took up the civil miscellaneous application whereby the APNS and other petitioners have prayed that the Implementation Tribunal be restrained from taking any coercive measures in implementing the Wage Board decision, in particular from acting as Land Revenue Officer while effecting recovery as arrears of land revenue.
It was also contended by the APNS that the Registrar of the tribunal has initiated coercive process under the Land Revenue Act, even though he has no such powers under the law. It was brought to the court’s notice that in some cases relating to Jang Group, Rawalpindi, the tribunal has given decisions which too are being executed through coercive measures.
The division bench has ordered that fifty per cent of the amount determined in so far adjudicated individual cases be deposited in court and for the remaining fifty per cent bank guarantee be furnished and the Tribunal is restrained from taking action under Land Revenue Act i.e. from taking any coercive measurers. The hearing of main petitions has been adjourned for third week of May when the whole matter will be decided.
The central plea of the APNS is that the NECOSA is a unique law peculiar only to one private service and the government has no justification to control conditions of service of its employees which is violative of fundamental rights, unreasonable, curbs freedom of expression, discrimination and suffers other constitutional and legal flaws. The APNS and other petitioners were represented by Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, Afzal Siddiqui, Abdul Sattar Pirzada, Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Rana Ikram Ullah Advocates.
Source: The News
Date:4/26/2006
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