A division bench of High Court of Sindh (SHC) comprising Chief Justice Saiyed Saeed Ashhad and Justice Zawwar Hussain Jaffery on Wednesday issued notices to the Deputy Attorney General, the Secretary Ministry of Information and Labour in a petition challenging Newspaper Employees Act 1973.
Barrister Abdul Hafeez Pirzada moved the petition seeking permanent injunction against enforcement of any award under the said Act and prayed to the court to declare the Act as illegal being discriminatory.
The petition was filed by APNS (All Pakistan Newspaper Society), Independent Newspaper Corporation (Jang Group), Pakistan Herald Publications (Dawn Group), Nida-e-Millat (Nawa-e-Waqt Group) and Kawish.
Challenging the vires of the Newspaper Act, 1973, the petitioners maintained that it was restricted to newspapers only while there are hundreds of other industries and commercial organisations which are left free.
The said Act infringes fundamental rights of the petitioners to do business freely and also affects freedom of the press.
The petitioners maintained praying to the court t o declare it as abinitio void being discriminatory.
They also prayed to the court to restrain the respondents from enforcing any award under the Act with "retrospective" effect.
The bench after perusal of the petition issued notices to the respondents as well as DAG for a date to be fixed later by the office of the court.
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