Journalists boycott KP assembly session

Journalists covering the proceedings of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Monday boycotted the coverage of the house session against retrenchment of workers by media houses. Soon after recitation from the Holy Quran, the Parliamentary Leader of Awami National Party (ANP) Sardar Hussain Babak on point of order took up the matter that the management of a media organization had fired more than 500 employees across the country including 71 in Peshawar. He said the KP assembly had recently passed a resolution in favour of journalists but any action was yet to be taken.
He said the government was paying huge amounts under the head of advertisement to media houses but on the other hand the owners were sacking their employees without any reason. He said that KP's journalists worked hard against terrorism in the region so the government should make a committee and stop the advertisement till the resolution of their employment problems.
Leader of the Opposition, Akram Khan Durrani said even a home servant is not expelled from his job in such a way as the owners of media houses are removing the journalists. He stressed upon the government to implement the resolution passed by KP assembly for welfare of media persons.
Inayatullah Khan of Jamat-e-Islami also condemned the attitude of media owners against journalists and said that the government must support them. Minister for Information, Shaukat Ali Yousafzai said that the government strongly condemns the inappropriate attitude of certain media houses against journalists. He said that it was on the record that the government had been giving huge amounts more than the expenditure of media houses under the head of advertisement but the owners of media houses wanted to pressurize the government through such tactics.
Yousafzai offered to arrange a meeting of journalists with Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Fawad Chaudhry. He assured to resolve journalists' problems on priority basis as he had remained three terms president of the Khyber Union of Journalists (KhUJ). Later, the journalists staged a walkout from the house. Shaukat Yousafzai, Minister for Local Government Shahram Tarakai and Adviser to Chief Minister for Education Ziaullah Bangash came out of the house and tried to convince the journalists to end their boycott but could not succeed.