Last updated: March 12, 2011 Shamsul Islam Naz Media practitioners and their apex body, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, are struggling hard for securing implementation of the 7th Wage Board Award as from Senate of Pakistan to the National Assembly and from the superior judiciary to the wage award implementation tribunal all have failed to persuade owners to implement the award despite sky-rocketing increase in prices of commodities. After a lapse of over 10 years, owners are still reluctant to increase wages of journalists and other staff which has put an economic burden on newspaper employees.
This has been happening despite passage of resolutions by the four provincial assemblies, the National Assembly and the Senate, asking the owners to implement the award.
The award was supposed to be implemented with effect from Ist July 2000 which was duly notified in the official gazette of Government of Pakistan after it became a law and binding upon them.
The media owners have made 7th wage award a point of prestige for them and from their raw conduct, they have literally proved that no one on earth can compel them to bow before the law and Constitution. It seems that all state organs i.e. Parliament, Executive, Judiciary and their subordinate institutions are just small picas in front of the owners who have failed to enforce their writ.
No one can dare ask media owners to abide by law, pay taxes and lawful duties and to respect rule of law. Contrary to this, they put all state organs under tremendous pressure and have also hired “services of some hand-picked journalists” who are being fabulously paid with a clear-cut agenda to scandalise each and every government department and functionary in a manner that no one may dare to see eye to eye with them.
The media owners are very successful in their mission and they call for accountability of each and every pillar of the state and attached organisations.
They are shrewd enough that they raise hue and cry to malign anybody who may dare to ask them to pay lawful duties and to fulfill legal obligations. They raise bogey of “attack” on freedom of press and they start hurling threats and intimidate officials.
Very strangely the higher judiciary also feels pleased to rush to the rescue of media owners.
The media owners are very successful in their well conceived strategy which can be judged from this fact that they have not only literally made the 7th wage board award for the media persons ineffective and inoperative, but have also been successful in blocking the subsequent Wage Boards which were to be constituted after every successive five years. Till this time, the 9th Wage Board Award should have been in operation when this piece was being written.
In historical perspective, one would observe that basically the wage board has to be constituted by the federal government for the purpose of fixing rates of wages for newspaper employees in the country. The board is constituted after every 5 years. Up till now seven boards have been formed.
BACKGROUND: There used to be no law for wages of working journalists when Pakistan came into being. The working journalists used to be paid according to discretion and sweet will of newspaper owners. The working journalists raised this issue before the constituent Assembly of Pakistan through a resolution which was tabled in November 1953. The resolution inter alia stated that “the Assembly is of the opinion that the government of Pakistan should appoint a Committee to investigate the conditions of the national press of Pakistan with particular reference to the working conditions of the journalists and report to the government”. This resolution was carried by the Assembly and inconsequence thereof the government of Pakistan constituted a Press Commission with various terms of reference, including recommendation in rates of pay and working conditions of journalists.
It may be noted that in the sixth year of the republic, the Indian Parliament passed Working Journalists and other Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1955. Under this act, the concept of the Wage Board for fixation of wages and other fringe benefits has been provided. Likewise, there is also law for constitution of the Wage Board in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and other countries.
PRESS COMMISSION (1954)
In Sept 1954, the government set up a Press Commission, which was supposed to give recommendations concerning working conditions and salaries of working journalists. One of the terms of reference of the commission was; “to examine and make recommendation on the rates of pay and working conditions of the journalists.” Justice Khurshid Zaman, Judge of the High Court headed the Commission, while late Hameed Nizami. Altaf Hussain, Z .A. Suleri and M. A. Zuberi were among the 11 other members of the Commission.
Reconstitution of Press Commission: Due to the professional and organizational rivalries between the two bodies the All Pakistan Newspaper Editors Conference (APNEC) and the Council of Pakistan Editors, and rival bodies of newspaper Editors, the Press Commission could not function resulting in reconstitution of the of the same on Sep 5, 1958, headed by H.B Tyabji, Chief Judge of the High Court of Sindh, Karachi.
Report / recommendation of the Commission: In March 1959, the Commission submitted its detailed report / recommendations to the government and stressed upon formulation of a law to regulate the condition of service of working journalists and a wage board for fixation of the rates of wages of the working journalists. The Commission highlighted various problems confronted by the newspaper industry in general and working journalists in particular.
In line with Press Commission Report, the government promulgated an Ordinance on 26th April 1960 known as the “Working Journalists (Condition of Service) Ordinance 1960″. Subsequently, the 1st Wage Board was constituted in 1960. The board consists of a Chairman eligible for the Judge of High Court and an unlimited number of the members selected by the government. But representation of the owners and newspapers employees was required to be equal.
The decision of the Board commonly known as “award” was made binding upon newspapers establishments.. According to the WJCSO, the Board was supposed to adjudicate and determine wages, grade and allowances only of working journalists and not other employees of newspapers organizations.
The WJCSO was replaced the with Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) Act, 1973 which was unanimously adopted by the parliament and was made public by the founder of the Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman, Zulafiqar Ali Bhutto on 14th Aug. A major change in the NECOSA was that all the employees working in the newspapers establishment were brought under the net of the Wage Board in addition to the working journalists.
FIRST WAGE BOARD 1960: The Ist wage board was constituted on 30th May 1960 with Justice Sajjad Ahmed Jan, Judge of the High Court of the West Pakistan as its Chairman In this board, wages were fixed for the working journalists only. Every newspaper organization was supposed to pay wages according to the rates fixed by the Board. The board gave its decision on 31st Dec. 1960 which was made operative from Ist Jan. 1961. It was made clear that “the decision of the Board would be subject to review and revision after 5 years from the date of its enforcement by an authority that might be set up by the federal government.”
SECOND WAGE BOARD: When the Ist Wage Board was constituted in 1960, it was decided that the government would form the board after every 5 years, therefore 2nd wage board was due in 1965. However, it was constituted after 9 years on the 25th April 1969 instead of 1965. The 2nd wage board had 8 members, four each of working journalists and newspaper employers while. Justice Sajjad Ahmed Jan was nominated its Chairman.
Later, in Oct 1969, Justice Sajjad Ahmed Jan resigned who was succeeded by Justice A.S Farooqi, a Judge of the West Pakistan High Court. He announced Interim Relief which was confined only to metropolitan newspapers employees.
The Chairman adopted in to classification of metropolitan as A and B categories while granting the Interim relief. He decided that all the newspapers which are located in metropolitan centers and they are having an annual revenue of 25 laces or more would be considered as belonging to metropolitan A while other newspapers having annual revenue of less than the 2.5 million would be considered belonging to metropolitan B category. On the 1st April 1970 Justice A.S Farooqi resigned and in his place Justice (retd) S.M Shafi was appointed as Chairman of the Wage Board on the 5th of March 1971.
Reconstitution of the 2nd Wage Board: On the 11th Sept 1973 the Federal government reconstituted the 2nd wage board and. Justice (Retd) S.M.Shafi, was appointed its Chairman with four members, 2 each from owners and employees of the newspapers. The board announced its decision on the 8th of June 1974 and fixed new pay scale for the employees.
3rd Wage Board: The 3rd Wage Board was constituted on the 24th Jan 1979 and Justice (Retd) Muhammad Munir Faruqee, was appointed as its Chairman along with eight members, four each from owners and employees. The board was reconstituted in June 1979 which announced its interim relief on the 5th August 1979. The board announced its final decision on 25th May 1980 which was made effective from 15th April 1980.
4th Wage Board: The 4th Wage Board was constituted on 4th Oct 1984 and Justice Mian Fazle Mehmood of Lahore High Court was appointed its Chairman. The Board had 12 members, six representing the employers and six employees.
The Board announced Interim Relief on the 10th of Jan 1985 while final award was given on 28th Sept 1985 and it was made operative from 15th April 1985.
5th WAGE BOARD: The 5th Wage Board was set up on 20th July 1989 which was reconstituted on the 20th Dec. 1989 with Justice (Retd) Agha Ali Hyder of the Sindh High Court as Chairman and 14 members equally drawn from amongst the employers and the employees. The Board granted Interim Relief on the 8th Feb 1990 while final decision was given on the 18th Dec 1990 and it was made operative from 15th of April 1990.
LITIGATION: The All Pakistan Newspaper Society (APNS) and some of its members challenged the Interim Award in the Supreme Court through a constitutional petition. However, during pendency of the petition final decision was announced by the Wage Board on the 18th of Dec 1990 which was made operative from15th of April 1990. The APNS filed an amended petition to challenge the validity of the final award but the court declared the petition as in fructuous and the amended petition was dismissed by a full bench of five judges on the 14th Dec 1993. The SC, however, ruled that the petitioners may challenge the final award before a court of competent jurisdiction as provided by law but the APNS did not opt to continue further litigation against the final award of 5th wage board.
6th WAGE BOARD: It came into existence with Justice Zia Mehmood Mirza, a Judge of Supreme Court of Pakistan as its chairman on the 23rd Oct 1994 consisting of 18 members, 9 each from the employers and the employees. Final decision was announced by the board on 23rd Oct 1994.
7th WAGE BOARD: The 7th wage board consisting of ten members five each representing the employers and employees and the Chairman Justice Raja Afrasiab Khan (Retd) Judge of the Supreme Count of Pakistan pronounced its award which was published in the official gazette on the 25th Oct 2001 and made operative with effect from Ist July 2000.
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE 7th WAGE BOARD: The newspapers owners immediately challenged the validity of the 7th wage board award directly before the Supreme Court of Pakistan under Article 185 (3) of the Constitution and also questioned the vires of the Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) Act, 1973, claiming that the same was discriminatory law and meant for suppression of the freedom of press and putting undue economic stress upon the media. The said petition remained pending before the S.C for about 4 years. Finally the Supreme Court dismissed the petition filed by the APNS and newspaper owners declaring that the matter did not fall under the ambit of Article 185 (3) of the Continuations of the Pakistan(PLD 2004 S.C. 600) . However, the petitioners were asked to move “competent court of jurisdiction” if so desired on the same issue. Taking advantage of this observation of the apex court the media owners challenged the validity of the 7th Wage Board Award once again before the Islamabad High Court, which dismissed the same in limini. However, once again the APNS and some of the owners moved yet another writ petition before the Singh High Court against the varies of the NESOCA as well as the 7th Wage Board Award and succeeded in getting restraint order without any service or knowledge to the PFUJ and affected newspaper employees. This restraint order is still operative providing leverage to media owners to escape from legal obligations of making payment of the wages and other accrual benefits of the 7th Wage Board award to their employees. Various benches of the Sindh High Court heard the case of the 7th Wage Board Award but none of them had announced the verdict. The height of injustice and atrocity with media persons can be judged from the fact that the Supreme Court of Pakistan in Aug. 2009 directed to decide the issue within 90 days but to no avail. Even, after changing of various benches a divisional bench finally concluded the proceedings on 20th Sept 2010 and reserved the judgment, which still remains reserved and there seems no fate of this reserved judgment, thus paving way for media owners to deprive their workers of benefits of the 7th Wage Board Award as case would once again be reopened as per High Court Rules since the “reserved” judgments could not be announced or in the meantime the bench would be no more functional with the same judges. These tricks were employed by the media owners with the patronage of judiciary.
The story of exploitation and money minting by media owners does not end here. On the one hand the 7th Wage Board Award was never implemented by them, and on the other hand they launched a vigorous campaign by inserting hundreds of “advertisements” in newspapers on front pages, raising an alarm that “newspapers industry” would be ruined if Wage Board Award was implemented in letter and spirit.
Under the garb of such types of false propaganda, they succeeded in getting concessions in various federal taxes and drastic reduction in import duties on the import of newsprint and other printed material to the tune of billions of rupees giving an allurement that “they will extend the benefits of the 7th Wage Board Award”. However, such pledges were never honored by the newspaper owners, even after lapse of more than 10 years which clearly indicates their highhandedness.
Ironically, on the eve of every federal budget, the APNS got various privileges claiming that it would “help the fourth pillar of state in its survival” and thus they always got concessions on various levies, including import of reconditioned machinery at zero taxation on the plea that these would be installed. They also secured loans for import of second-hand printing machinery at zero mark-up rates from SMEs and state-owned financial institutions on false pretext of upgrading newspaper industry in the “national interest.”
Taking countless advantages and financial benefits from the governments during the last full decade the media owners also fleeced newspapers subscribers, advertisers and all end users on various counts. For instance they reduced pages and cut the size of newspapers substantially. Not only this, rates of newspapers as well advertisements were increased almost by 200 to 300 per cent during the past ten years. Yet wages of newspaper employees were not increased.
How cruel media owners and the government are can be judged from this that although wages and other fringe benefits of government employees are increased as a “regular feature of every budget”, right from 1996 to 1997, while in the budget 2010-2011 basic wages of government employees was enhanced by 50 per cent, which shows that newspaper employees were discriminated against and were being extended step-motherly treatment.
Salaries of newspaper employees, including journalists, were earlier fixed in July 1996 under the 6th Wage Award and since then no increase had been made. The media owners had been using delaying tactics and filing cases in one court or the other to delay the implementation of the award. Likewise, from 1996-97 to-date salaries of law-enforcement agencies, armed forces, government employees and private sector have gone up by at least 400 to 500 per cent. But still the media owners were not ready to make payment of salaries as per price-hike and newspaper employees were working on the salary structure fixed in 1996 under the 6th Wage Award.
These hard facts clearly indicate that media persons were being exploited by media owners who consider that perhaps media persons do not need to take meals for themselves and their kids.
The question is whether it is possible for a media person to live without clothes, bread, shelter, medical facilities and education for their kids, and can they perform their professional assignments without job protection, life insurance, life security etc.
The miserable plight of media persons can also be observed from the sad story a journalist, Mohamed Azam, working with “Channel 5″ owned by Zia Shahid of Khabrain group. Azam committed suicide on 2 Dec in Lahore. He was not paid wages for five months. On Dec. 2008, he went to the office of the Khabrain to demand his wages.
Azam pleaded his bosses that he must be paid wages as there is no food at home. He was treated badly by Imtinan Shahid, son of Zia Shahid and was asked to leave office without payment. Imtinan even made bad comments about Azam’s 8 sisters. Imtinan told Azam that you have 8 sisters, ask them to work.
This made Azam very sad. As he arrived, his mother asked if he was paid, he told her that the boss has not paid him. The mother reminded him about Eid which is coming and asked him to do something for wages. He went to his room, closed the door and hanged himself with an electric wire at 2pm on Dec. 2, 2008.
Azam had 8 sisters, five of them married and three to be married. He has a brother of 9 year. Azam was the only breadwinner of the family as his father had left them long ago.
The callousness of media owners can be judged from this fact that none of the print and electronic media aired or published this gruesome incident in detail. Even it was not mentioned that the cause of his death was nonpayment of five months wages. The name of journalist Muhammad Azam was also not mentioned.
The media mentioned only that Azam committed suicide because he was facing financial difficulties. This attitude of media exposes their real anti-worker and inhuman attitude against ethics of real journalism.
There are endless and long stories of atrocities by Pakistan media owners but the disturbing question is constant silence of vocal segments of society, including lawyers, judiciary, human rights activists, political parties and the government of Pakistan. They are, of course, afraid of nuisance of Pakistani media. But one wonders that in an age of globalization even the international forces too are salient about sorrow state of affairs of Pakistani media industry, and they are hardly aware of the plight of Pakistani media workers and journalists and have confined them only to look after “economic interests” of media houses.
They do not believe in freedom of expression, and that they have a duty to keep the citizens informed which is the prime objective and social obligation of the print and electronic media. Everything printed or aired in the Pakistani media by and large is biased.
Not a single newspaper in Pakistan or electronic media, and the news agencies carries and publishes the point of view media employees and their trade unions as well as PFUJ. This hard fact ipso facto proves how much under pressure the Pakistani journalists are |
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