All Pakistan Newspaper Society (APNS) for strategy to save newspaper industry
KARACHI- The General Body of the All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS), while endorsing the decision of the Executive Committee to boycott the 7th Wage Board, has directed the high powered committee to further evaluate all avadable avenues and evolve any strategy to rescue the industry from the major financial and resource crunch faced by it, says a press release.
Arshad A Zuberi, Secretary General of the APNS, announced that at an extraordinary general body meeting held in Karachi, under the chairmanship of its President Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman, the members reviewed the situation in light of the devastating Interim Relief announced by the Chairman 7th Wage Board and unanimously expressed their inability to implement the same.
The Interim Relief announced by the Chairman Wage Board would cause over 37 to 39 per cent impact on the salary bill of newspapers, which would not be affordable by the newspaper industry. The members noted that the package offered by the federal government to provide relief to the newspaper industry to face the newsprint crisis has no significant effect on the situation which has been further aggravated by the burden levied by the Interim Relief.
The EGM considered all the pros and cons of resisting the Wage Board and resolved to brave the consequences with determination. The members felt that this had become inevitable in order to save the newspapers from Wage Award crippling financial impact, which would lead to more closures in the print media.
The APNS members noted that in this changing age when products are required to be market oriented the wages should also be determined by market forces. The EGM regretted that the newspaper organisations are the only institutions in the country which are still being governed by the Wage Board, whereas there is no such Wage Board for any other industry and even the application of the Wage Board from the banking sector has been eliminated long ago.
The EGM demanded that since the present government has undone or altered the ill-fated and undesirable laws introduced by the previous governments, it should also move swiftly to eliminate the Newspapers Employees Conditions of Service Act 1973 and Wage Board from the newspaper industry as well.
The EGM expressed that in the age of globisation and free economy the concept of Wage Board is really deplorable, which creates hindrances in the availability of quality publications and journalism for the public.
The General Council of the APNS, while appreciating the views expressed by the Chairman Wage Board in his Interim Relief order about the financial crisis facing newspapers and the recommendation to the government to withdraw all kinds of levies on newsprint and other imported consumables, noted that the government has continuously expressed its inability to implement them.
Source: The News
Date:1/30/2001
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