All issues related to journalists community will be resolved on priority basis, said Federal Secretary, M/O I, B & NH, Syed Imran Gardezi while talking to a delegation of Rawalpindi Islamabad Union of Journalists RIUJ, led by its President, Mr. Ali Raza Alvi along with Secretary General Mr. Bilal Dar and other members, here today. The Secretary assured office bearers of RUIJ that the Ministry will work with the journalists’ community to help resolve their issues.
Matters pertaining to payment of salaries to employees of BOL TV Channel, Wage Board Award, payment of salaries to media workers and other issues related to the journalists community were discussed in the meeting. The Federal Secretary assured the delegation that the Government is with the media workers and wants the issue of payment of employees of Bol Channel to be resolved at the earliest. In this connection Secretary Information constituted a Committee comprising PIO, PID, President and Secretary General of RIUJ and Director (Media), M/O IB & NH, to review the situation, agree on mechanism to ensure early payment of not only to BOL’s employees but also to the workers of other newspapers and news channels. He said that all necessary measures will be taken to ensure timely payment of salaries to all media workers. The Secretary said that the Committee should take up the matter with the owners of media houses for immediate payment of outstanding dues to workers of all newspapers and news channels.
Issues being faced by the newspapers published from Gilgit-Baltistan also came under discussion in the meeting. The delegation apprised the Secretary that the GB Government is reluctant to release long outstanding dues on account of advertisement and due to this factor the journalists are not being paid. The Secretary assured the delegation that Federal Government will take up the matter with the, Government of G.B to resolve the issue amicably. Secretary also framed a Committee comprising one each representatives of M/O I,B & NH, PID, representative of the GB government, President and Secretary General of RIUJ to resolve the issue of payment to newspapers from GB.
The Office bearers of RIUJ agreed with the Secretary on setting up mechanisms to discuss and resolve the issues being faced by the media workers. RIUJ also agreed to call the protests scheduled for tomorrow in Islamabad.
The meeting was also attended by Deputy Commissioner Islamabad and senior officers of the Ministry.
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