The 2nd Meeting of the 8th Wage Board Award was held under the Chairmanship of Mr. Justice Hasnat Ahmad Khan at Peshawar today. The minutes of previous meeting of the Board were approved. During the meeting it was observed that sub-committee constituted in the previous meeting did not meet due to pre occupation of Mr. Sarmad Ali, learned member as claimed by him. He however, assured that before the next meeting the sub-committee would meet for resolving the issue unanimously. It was further observed that the reply to the memo of interim relief was not submitted by the employer’s members. Explaining the said default the said members stated that due to paucity of time the complete date could not be prepared and gathered, though the said job has been partially completed. They sought for a fortnight’s time to submit reply to the memo of interim relief. The Chairman observed that a lot of time has already been consumed on the issue of interim relief and adjourning the matter further would not be in the fitness of the things. Mr. Nasir Chishti representative of newspaper employees said that the newspaper employees were expecting announcement of interim award in this meeting and were waiting for good news as they have already suffered a lot due to the extra ordinary delay of more than decade in the announcement of 8th award. Mr. Bakhtzada Yousafzai, Mr. Shoaibuddin and Mr. Muhammad Nawaz Raza also supported Mr. Chishti. In response Mr. Hameed Haroon stated that it is not their intention to delay the matter rather they wanted to settle the issue amicably and unanimously. He further said that the employers are aware of difficulties faced by the newspaper employees but at the same time he stated that the employers are also facing difficult time inasmuch as neither the central government nor the provincial governments have cleared the dues of the advertisements. Mr. Sarmad Ali added that despite the commitment made by the honorable Prime Minister, Federal Government has failed to clear their dues in its entirety. In order to show the bonafide on their part, Mr. Hameed Haroon made an undertaking to the effect that if the employers fail to submit their written reply to the memo of interim relief before or on 25th of March, 2019 Chairman would be empowered to decide the issue of interim relief unilaterally. It was resolved that the employers’ members would submit their reply on or before 25th March 2019. It was further decided that next meeting of the board would be held on 2nd of April 2019. The said date was fixed on the request of employers’ members who claim that they would remain busy in connection with the election of APNS. The meeting concluded with a vote of thanks by the Chairman to all the participants of the meeting. Apart from the Chairman of the Board the meeting was attended by Mr. Hameed Haroon (Dawn Group), Mr. Sarmad Ali (Jang Group), Mr. Nasir Chishti (Daily Jang), Mr. Bakhtzada Yousafzai (Daily Aeen Peshawar), Mr. Shoaib Uddin (Daily Nawa-e-Waqt) Mr. Muhammad Nawaz Raza (Daily Nawa-i-Waqt) & Mr. Waseem Abbas, Secretary to the Wage Board.
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