Wage Board to be promulgated in consonance with Constitution and law: Marriyum

ISLAMABAD, Apr 18 (APP):Minister of State for Information, Broadcasting, National History and Literary Heritage Ms Marriyum Aurangzeb, addressing a ceremony held at the National Press Club here Wednesday with regard to the notification for the Wage Board , said that the government had completed the process of constituting the Wage Board after a hiatus of seventeen years during which the journalists remained deprived of their rights.
She said that the difficulties faced by the journalist community had been overcome though collective efforts. The journalists had got the dividend for the efforts, which they had been making for the institution of Wage Board during the last seventeen years, she added.
The minister said that PFUJ President Afzal Butt and his team had played a significant role in that regard.
She said that democracy was completing its ten years in July and it would be befittingly celebrated.
Marriyum said that she was sorry to note that the media was trying to mute the part of the conversation of former prime minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif yesterday in which he talked about respect of the vote notwithstanding the fact that he had made Pakistan a nuclear power, built infrastructure and network of roads and brought CPEC to the country. Nawaz Sharif, she said, had invariably talked about the sanctity and ascendency of law and the Constitution.
She said that whatever had been happening during the last seventy years and the traditions that were set, were absolutely wrong.
The minister said that the government by constituting the Wage Board had not done any favour to the journalists but given them their due right. The journalists, she said, were such a segment of the society who kept democracy going through the power of their pen and had always stood with it through thick and thin, and the ups and downs that it had to endure.
She said that she was well aware of the difficulties that the working journalists faced during the discharge of their professional assignments. She said that it was the good luck of the prime minister, the government and her that the notification of Wage Board was issued during the tenure of PML-N government. The real work in that regard was still to be done and hopefully it would be accomplished within the tenure of the government, she said, adding that the step had reinforced media-government relations that existed before it.
Marriyum said that the Eighth Wage Board would provide economic security to the journalist community solving their problems pertaining to household and education. She thanked the newspaper owners for their support in that regard.
She said that the government was also working on the bill regarding security and safety of the journalists. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had also played a significant role in the finalization of the Wage Board and its approval from the cabinet, she added.
The minister informed the audience that she would visit Sindh and Balochistan shortly.
Marriyum said that the Constitution delineated the powers and functions of the state institutions and if all of them worked within their stipulated spheres it would become a source of strength for all.
The minister while handing over the notification of the Wage Board to the leadership of the journalists, said that she would never forget the love and respect that she was given and also expressed her gratitude to them.
PFUJ President Afzal Butt, National Press Club president, IIUJ president and other representative bodies of journalists thanked Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbassi, federal ministers and Minister of State for Information Marriyum Aurangzeb for issuing the notification of Wage Board. The ceremony was attended by the representatives of the media bodies and a large number of journalists.