JournalismPakistan.com
July 01, 2021

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) has condemned the management of Dawn that is trying to introduce a contractual system for its permanent employees.

President PFUJ, Shahzada Zulfiqar, and Secretary-General Nasir Zaidi said that Dawn newspaper was founded by Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who firmly believed in law and the constitution. However, the newspaper management seems to take actions that fly in the face of such concepts of Pakistan’s founder.

PFUJ leaders said that the Human Resource Department of Dawn has approached correspondents in Faisalabad and Multan, who are permanent employees of the paper, and forced them to sign resignation documents. The HR staff told them that they would be rehired on a contractual basis for one year. The correspondents have been working for the newspapers for years, and ending their permanent positions in this way is entirely unlawful and unconstitutional, the union leaders said.

They said that such attitude on the part of the Dawn management had created concerns among the employees of the media group.

The two leaders warned that such attitude would not be accepted, and the journalist body would protest in front of Dawn offices across the country.

The leaders questioned the rationale of putting employees on a contractual basis even though the Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry recently revealed that the government has paid millions of rupees to the media houses.

"After receiving such a colossal payment, there is no justification for laying off employees, withholding their payment, delaying their dues or putting them on contractual basis on the pretext of financial losses."

They noted that the financial condition of media houses is much better now than it was some years ago. "Therefore, there is no reason for converting the permanent jobs into contractual ones."

The two leaders pointed out that the Dawn employees have always stood with the management in times of crisis. However, when the institution is financially stable, it is creating problems for its employees.