APNS challenges 7th Wage Award in SC
ISLAMABAD- The All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS), the supreme body of newspaper owners, filed a constitutional petition under Article 184(3) direct in the Supreme Court against the Seventh Wage Award for newspaper employees.
The petition on behalf of owners of 24 newspapers and the APNS was filed by senior advocate of Supreme Court Abdul Hafeez Pirzada and Advocate on Record M S Khattak, while Muhammad Afzal Siddiqui, advocate, also took part in the preparation of the petition.
In the petition, the Federation of Pakistan has been made respondent through the secretaries of information and labour besides Chairman of the Seventh Wage Board Justice (r) Raja Afrasiab Khan, ten members of the Board, Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), All Pakistan Newspaper Editors Council (APNEC), Implementation Tribunal, Islamabad, and National Industrial Relations Commission. The attorney general of Pakistan has been included as non-respondent.
The petitioners have prayed to the court to declare the Seventh Wage Board and Seventh Wage Award as illegal and null and void to the notification of the Seventh Wage Award. They have contended that the matter is of public importance and is related to the basic rights. They have also contended that the Newspaper Employees (Condition of Service) Act 1973 contradicts the constitution as it is not in accordance with Article 8.
The petitioners have contended that the Act negates Articles 9, 14, 18, 19, 23 and 25 which deal with the right to life, dignity of humanity, freedom of trade, freedom of press, right to own property and right of equality respectively. Therefore, the court should declare the Newspaper Employees Act 1973 not in keeping with the Constitution, it added.
The petitioners have further contended that the authority of the chairman of the Wage Board negates the Constitution, hurts independence of the judiciary and amounts to suppression of the freedom of press. It has also been pointed out that the first Wage Award was announced under Ordinance XVI of 1961 and that was meant for working journalists only, whereas the working and non-working employees were included in the act which was passed by the parliament in 1973.
The petitioners have contended that the wage awards, which were announced in 1974, 1980, 1985, 1991 and 1996, put burden on the owners and thus hurt the freedom of press. They stated that the Seventh Wage Award is impractical, therefore, it should be declared unconstitutional by the court.
Source: The News
Date:6/21/2002
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