Apnec, PFUJ demand implementation of interim relief
ISLAMABAD- All Pakistan Newspaper Employees Confederation (Apnec), and Pakistan Federal Union of, Journalists (PFUJ), demanded implementation of interim relief awarded by the chairman of the Seventh Wage Board, Raja Afrasiab Khan, to all newspapers’ and news agencies employees throughout the country.
The demand was raised at a protest meeting held in front of the Press Information Department in the capital and addressed by Apnec chairman Abdul Hameed Chhapra, Secretary General Pervez Shaukat, Senior PFUJ Vice President C R Shamsi, PFUJ Secretary General Fauzia Shahid and office bearers of other journalist unions.
The speakers condemned the retrenchment in newspapers, non-implementation of interim relief announced by the government, delay in the implementation of the Sixth Wage Award and non-payment of salaries to journalists in several newspaper groups. The representative bodies said that a countrywide protest would be held on July 10 if the plight of working journalists were not addressed.
The speakers also demanded release of four journalists held in captivity on charges of blasphemy in Abbottabad.
In a related development, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has also written a letter to the President General Pervez Musharraf condemning the closure of the Urdu-language daily “Mohasib” and the arrest of four of its editors on charges of blasphemy.
The New York-based organisastion while calling for immediate and unconditional release of the journalists, informed the president that as an organization dedicated to the defense of press freedom around the world, CPJ was concerned that Pakistan’s blasphemy laws were being used to restrict Press freedom.
“In the past, Your Excellency had rightly sought to amend these laws to make them less prone to abuse, and we encourage you to revisit this issue,” said in its June 14 letter to General Musharraf.
Source: Dawn
Date:7/1/2001
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