Islamabad, February 26, 2019 (PPI-OT): After re-constitution of 8th Wage Board vide Notification dated 8th February, 2019 whereby earlier Notification dated November, 26 2018 was partially modified, Meeting of the 8th Wage Board was held under the Chairmanship of Mr. Justice Hasnat Ahmad Khan at PID Office Lahore today. The Chairman welcomed all the members of the Board. At the start of the Meeting all the members of the Board offered condolence on the said demise of Mr. Shafi-ud-Din Ashraf, who was one of the members of the Board. A copy of letter addressed to the Chairman by Mr. Sarmad Ali raising certain issues qua procedure for conducting the Meetings of the Board was placed on the record.
The members representing the employees by and large agreed to the proposals made in the said letter. Mr. Hameed Haroon, President APNS, on his behalf as well as on behalf of his colleagues assured full cooperation to the Board. He further stated that they did not want to create any hindrance in the working of the Board and the members representing the employers did not attend the previous Meetings of the Board as their grievances on certain matters remained un-redressed by the Government inasmuch as Mr. Ijaz-ul-Haq was made a member of the Board as one of the representatives of the employers without nomination or approval of APNS.
A copy of memorandum on interim relief presented during the 2nd Meeting of Board on behalf of the members representing Newspaper Employees was supplied to each member representing the employers. Alongwith said memorandum a copy of letter dated 12 February, 2018 written by Deputy Financial Adviser (I and B) has been furnished to each of the aforesaid learned members for their written reply. With the consensus of all the members it was resolved that both the parties would be entitled legal representation as and when required during the proceedings of the Board. Similarly it was decided that both the parties would nominate financial plus wage adviser of their choice for assistance of the Board.
The Chairman may also require assistance of such an advisor from the Government. During the Meeting a sub-committee comprising Mr. Sarmad Ali and Mr. Asif Aziz Zuberi representing the employers and Mr. Nasir Chishti and Shahzada Zulfiqar representing the employers was constituted to decide the issue of interim award with consensus. Mr. Sarmad Ali would act as coordinator of the sub-committee that has been tasked to decide the said issue before the next meeting. On the suggestion of Mr. Hameed Haroon it was resolved by the Board that for deciding the issues of interim and final award the Meetings of the Board would be held in different sessions. During the inaugural session first Meeting of the Board would be held at Peshawar on 14th March, 2019 and the next Meeting would be held on 15th and 16th March, 2019 consecutively.
As far as recording the evidence is concerned it was resolved that all the witnesses intended to produced by both the parties respectively would tender their duly sworn affidavits in advance and the opposite party would be entitled to cross examine them. Most importantly it was resolved that issue of interim award would be positively decided in the aforesaid first session starting from 14th March 2019. Apart from the Chairman of the Board the meeting was attended by Mr. Hameed Haroon (Dawn Group), Mr. Sarmad Ali (Jang Group), Mr. Mujib-ur-Rehman Shami (Daily Pakistan), Miss Rameeza Nizami (Daily Nawa-i-Waqt), Mr. Asif Aziz Zuberi (Business Recorder), Mr. Nasir Chishti (Daily Jang), Mr. Bakht Zada Yousafzai (Daily Aeen Peshawar), Mr. Shoaib Uddin (Daily Nawa-e-Waqt) and Mr. Waseem Abbas, Secretary to the Wage Board.
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