ISLAMABAD- The APNS has rejected the continuation of the regrettable legacy of unilateral determination of wage structures of newspaper industry by the government and decided to boycott the Seventh Wage Board. It decided to call its extraordinary general body on Jan 29 to evolve measures and strategy to seek the final approval, says a press release of APNS.
Arshad Zuberi, the secretary general of the APNS, announced the decision taken by the executive committee held here on Jan 18. The committee members unanimously expressed their dismay over the failure of the government to provide relief to the newspaper industry, which has left it alone to face the major financial and resource crunch caused by the unprecedented increase in the newsprint and other raw material costs that has been further aggravated by the continuation of the wage boards instituted by the dictatorial regimes as a lever of coercion to curb press freedom.
The APNS executive committee expressed its profound distress at the crippling ad hoc wage increase announced by the chairman of the Seventh Wage Board, and noted that no publication whether small, medium or large could afford the burden caused by the initial relief whereas the final award may be disastrous for the industry.
The committee, while unanimously rejecting the fairness of the award, decided to take all possible measures to do away with the wage board and launch a public awareness campaign to educate the masses on the unfair controls imposed on the media by the successive governments.
The committee also expressed its concern over the deteriorating press-government relations resultant over the attitude and conduct of the ministry of labour and the ministry of finance, which have practically remained indifferent to this crises.
The committee said in this changing age, when products we required to be market-oriented, the wages should also be determined by the market forces. It regretted that the newspaper organizations were the only institutions which were still being governed by the wage board.
The committee demanded that since the government had undone or altered the ill-fated and undesirable laws introduced by the previous governments, it should also eliminate the implementation of wage boards from the newspaper industry as well.
The members directed the president not to approve the enactment of Press Council of Pakistan until the freedom of information act was promulgated.
The APNS members noted that the package offered by the ministry of finance to provide relief to the industry to face the newsprint crisis had no significant effect on the situation. They resolved that unless the customs duty and general sales tax on the import of newsprint and other usables by the newspaper industry were exempted, the situation would remain alarming.
Later, a delegation of the APNS and CPNE held a meeting with Information Secretary Syed Anwar Mahmood and officials of the ministry and apprised them on the observations and decisions of the executive committees of the APNS and the CPNE.
The meeting discussed the draft of press, newspapers, news agencies and books registration ordinance, and after detailed deliberations finalized the draft.
It was decided that the draft would be placed before the executive committee of the APNS and the CPNE and after the approval would be sent to the information secretary for further processing.
Source: Dawn
Date:1/21/2001
