SC returns APNS petition
ISLAMABAD- The Supreme Court (SC) office returned the petition of All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) questioning the validity of the Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) Act and the Seventh Wage Board Award.
According to the assistant registrar of the SC, the petition which was filed by the APNS, under the apex court’s original jurisdiction, was not entertainable.
The SC official pointed out that the issue raised in the constitutional petition did not fall in the purview of Article 184(3) under which only such issues could be raised as were of public importance.
The present petition, the SC official said, related to the grievance of a section of the society. The SC office relied on its latest judgment on the issue, Syed Zulfikar Mehdi versus PIA, decided by Justice Saiduzzaman Siddiqui.
Under the SC rules, the order of the registrar is open to challenge before a judge, who would decide whether the petition was entertainable or not. If the judge upheld the registrar’s order, the matter ends there. But if the registrar’s order is found defective, the judge can order that the petition be fixed before the bench which would decide it.
The petitioners had challenged the Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) Act 1973 and the Seventh Wage Board Award on the grounds that they were violative of their fundamental rights.
The petitioner body had stated that the matter was of public importance as the Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) Act 1973 was violative of the 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 petitioner further 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 were accepted that the legislature was competent to enact the Act there was no justification for extending its application to non-working journalists.
Source: Dawn
Date:7/9/2002
” 
” 
” 
” 
