The provincial assembly of the Punjab passed a unanimous resolution, demanding a service structure for the journalists hailing from the electronic media on the same pattern as that of the print media under the Newspaper Employees Act that ensures the timely payment of the salaries and medical allowance of the working journalists.
On Tuesday, during the 29th session of the Punjab Assembly, law and parliamentary affairs minister Rana Sanaullah Khan moved the pro-journalists resolution that was also endorsed by the leader of opposition Mian Mehmood-ur-Rashid and other parliamentary leaders of their political parties. “This house considers the delay and non-payment of salaries of journalists hailing from both print and electronic media as an insult to this noble profession and it is severe injustice with the families of journalists,” the resolution says. The resolution further added that positive journalism cannot flourish under such circumstances and urged the media houses to restore all the employees that were fired by them in the recent past. All the members of journalist’s community present there lauded the efforts of the newly elected body of the press gallery in passing the landmark resolution and demanded its implementation in letter and spirit.
In the meanwhile, female lawmakers of the Punjab Assembly have once again demanded an increase in their salaries. Dr Farzana Nazir of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) said that the salaries of lawmakers hailing from Punjab are extremely low as compared to their counterparts in Sindh and KPK assemblies. It is worth mentioning here that Dr Farzana reiterated the same demand that she had made in the house during the session of the assembly in February this year. She has now been joined by a number of other female lawmakers as well. The ruling party’s legislators rejected the proposal of their law minister in which he said that the salaries of parliamentarians will be increased every year according to the formula set for all the government employees. The female lawmakers did not want to be included in the categories of the government employees as they want a special treatment for them as far as the issue of their salaries is concerned. Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal said that all the parliamentary leaders of the house should be consulted before making any decision related to the salaries of the lawmakers.
Earlier in the day, the session of the Punjab Assembly started after a delay of more than one hour as per its tradition and answers related to the Irrigation department were given by the provincial minister Amanat Ullah Khan Shadi Khel during the question hour. Moreover, parliamentary secretary for Forestry, Fisheries and Wildlife Mian Fida Hussain Wattoo gave answers related to his department in the question hour.
The session will resume on Wednesday (today) morning.
