The controversial decision taken by the PTI government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, directing Textbook Board to go into open tender system at the country level in the name of ‘transparency’ has resulted in closure of 97 per cent of printing presses in the province, rendering thousands of labourers jobless.
“The decision taken by the KP government of open tender policy for allocation of Textbook Board printing has left the local printers and publishers in a lurch because of their inability to compete with printers of Punjab,” said Iqtidar Ali Akhunzada, President Frontier Printers and Publishers Association.
After announcement of new policy more than 80 percent of textbook business has gone to Punjab through open tender, forcing the local printers to shut down their units and lay off staff both regular and contractual, Iqtidar added.
Talking to APP, he said there are around 90 printing presses registered with Textbooks board for printing of books and almost 97 percent have been closed down due to implication of the new policy.
Our labourerers including some skilled machine men, mechanics, pasters, cutters, binders etc are searching for jobs in other fields to make their both ends meet and this would also be a big loss for us if we lost our skilled working team, Iqtidar added.
The number of affected labourers who lost jobs, he continued, is about 9,000 to 10,000 who were directly associated with presses while hundreds of others were seasonal labors who were hired during printing season.
He said out of 90 registered printing presses only 3 have got some printing and that too in shape of sub-letting by printers of Punjab.
In response to a question, the President FPPA said printers of KP can not compete with printers of Punjab on rate issue due to lack of resources and some other issues caused due to location disadvantage of KP from seaport resulting in high price of printing ink, plates and other commodities used in printing.
He disclosed that the new policy which was introduced in the name of transparency has inflicted a loss of Rs 170.75 million to provincial kitty due to high rates of printing of books in comparison to rates of previous year.
Giving a back ground of rules under which the KP printers were allocated printing from Textbook Board, Iqtidar said till 1980 the already developed and well-established printers of Punjab used to print major chunk of KP textbooks.
However, in 1982-83 then Governor, Gen Fazle Haq, the controlling authority at that time, ordered handing over of 100 percent printing to local printers. The decision was taken for the protection and growth of local printers of KP, Iqtidar explained.
He said the local printers made efforts and within three to four decades and developed the printing industry here under the umbrella of the Textbook Board of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that provided the only major printing activity in the province.
By this wise directive the controlling authority not only managed to protect the local printing industry but also provided vast opportunities as a huge force of trained machine operators, technically sound mechanics and workshops were created,” he added.
Iqtidar also disclosed that in 2001, the Peshawar High Court, in a writ petition filed by printers of Punjab gave the verdict in favour of printers of KP.
He said the KP new policy is also against the verdict of PHC and soon the printers are going to file a contempt of court application.
He said a number of requests were made to KP Chief Minister and Provincial Education Minister, but no heed is given to the plight of printers association who are now forced to sell off their machines and even presses to meets both ends.
Just to point out the indiscriminate use of the word LABOURER by Pakistani writers who still seems to be using old colonial English. In Urdu literature and poetry, the word MASDOOR might have some attribute of respect, in contemporary English it has a derisory connotation, it is used very sparingly, only if and when extremely necessary. In a democratic society, every individual is free and equal under law, he / she merits respect just like anyone else, this is the beauty, spirit and essence of a democratic culture and mindset. The word in general use is replaced by WORKER, or unskilled worker if necessary for the sake of precision.
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