March 28, 2024
Featured National

PFUJ decides for a long-march to Islamabad

CT Newsroom

Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) has announced a long march in the first week of April from provincial capital of Balochistan to Islamabad to force the government and the media owners to fulfill their legal obligations towards the media workers who are facing financial hardships for last two years.

“The anti-worker alliance between the government and the media industry owners has forced us to launch a struggle to achieve our rights,” said a statement issued by the PFUJ at the end of a three-day meeting of its Federal Executive Council (FEC) held at Lahore Press Club with PFUJ President Shahzada Zulfikar in the chair.

“Under this unholy alliance, the owners of media industry have surrendered their independence to the government to get a free hand to violate the labour laws and sack thousands of workers during last two years, impose forcible pay cuts in their salaries, and default on the payment of workers’ salaries for months,” the statement said. “We are left with no other option but to simultaneously fight against the government and media industry tycoons”, it further said.

The PFUJ also demanded of the government to set up a Service Structure for the electronic media employees on the pattern of Wage Award and called upon all the political parties to support this demand of the journalists by moving a bill in the National Assembly for this purpose.

“It is the moral and legal responsibility of the government to provide an umbrella of protection to the media workers who are working under harsh conditions in the bonded labour camps called television channels”, the statement added.

Under the decision, the PFUJ will start its long march from Quetta in the first week of April. From Quetta, the processionists will arrive in Karachi from where the march will start its journey towards the north of the country while touching every big city on its way before finally reaching Islamabad.

“We call upon all the civil society organizations, lawyers associations, trade unions and all political forces in the country to support us in our fight to save the journalists and their families from starvation and to protect the freedom of expression in the country,” the statement said.

After reaching the federal capital, the long march participants will stage a sit-in in front of the parliament building till their demands are accepted. “This is a do or die situation and we will not return unless our demands are fully met,” the statement stated.

The FEC of PFUJ, attended by members of all the journalists’ associations from across the country as well as presidents and secretaries of National Press Club, Islamabad and Lahore Press Club, authorized a committee to finalise the charter of demand which would be sent to the government as well as the media industry owners within a week.

The FEC also decided that protest demonstrations will be held in near future outside the offices of Pakistan Broadcasters Association (PBA) as well as All Pakistan Newspapers Owners Association (APNS) against the delay in salaries in the majority of news channels and failure by the newspaper owners to implement the 8th Wage Board Award which they were legally bound to enforce in July 2019.

PFUJ said that more than 8.000 media workers have been sacked by the television channels and newspapers during the last three years. Many television channels are in default in the payment of monthly salaries to their workers, ranging from three months to a year. “The situation in most of the television channels and newspapers is worse than bonded labour camps and we cannot sit and just watch our workers dying,” the statement said.

The PFUJ directed journalists’ organizations across the country to start mobilization campaign among the workers to gear them up for the long march and to start registering the workers for this purpose. All those workers who were sacked during the last three years have also been asked to approach their local journalists’ unions for this purpose.

The PFUJ said that the government’s connivance with the owners has been exposed after the newspaper owners failed to implement the 8th Wage Award which they had voluntarily signed. “The government has notified the Wage Award which was issued under the law and if the owners refuse to implement that law why any action has not been taken by the government even after passage of seven months,” the PFUJ said demanding the federal and the provincial governments to immediately link their advertisement policies with the implementation of wage award to all employees working in the newspapers.

“Every newspaper employee, whether permanent or on contract, is eligible for this award and we will not accept if the contract employees were kept out of the Award,” the statement said.

The PFUJ also totally rejected the illegal practice of hiring media workers on contract by the media organizations. “This practice is against the labour laws and we cannot allow the media tycoons to continue exploiting the workers financially,” the statement said adding the government needs to enforce the labour laws in letter and spirit.

It also criticized the provincial labour departments for failing to fulfill their responsibilities towards the workers, thus indirectly helping the media owners in violating the relevant labour laws.

The FEC meeting of the PFUJ also demanded of the government to stop controlling the media through PEMRA and other social media laws that are aimed at curbing the freedom of expression in the country. “The advices and instructions are continuously coming to media houses from the state institutions as well as PEMRA. “The government must stop this practice and allow the media to play an independent role in this country,” the statement said and added “the freedom of expression and financial viability of media houses are inter-linked, hence any restriction on the media pushes it closer to financial disaster.”

The PFUJ also severely opposed the government for making changes in the rules for the appointment of the chairman of Press Council of Pakistan (PCP) in order to bring its own favourites.

Previously, only a retired high court or Supreme Court judge or a person with equivalent qualification could become the member of the Press Council of Pakistan. The new changes allow anyone with 15 years’ experience to head this body now. “These changes are aimed at controlling an independent organization and we have already seen that the government has nominated people from dubious journalist organizations as representatives of journalists as members.

The PFUJ also demanded to appoint only a retired high court judge as Chairman of the Implementation Tribunal for Newspaper Employees (ITNE). “Only a retired high court judge can adjudicate such complicated cases of newspaper employees. It also demanded that provincial offices of ITNE should be set up in all the four provincial capitals to lessen the financial burden on the employees who have to come from all over the country to Islamabad to hear the cases.

The PFUJ also said that it would issue its Lahore Declaration within a day or too.