ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court on Thursday disposed of the petitions filed by journalists against the Implementation Tribunal for Newspapers Employees (ITNE) for payment of their dues under the Wage Board Award.
Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb issued the verdict disposing of the petitions after the settlement of the matter.
Syed Ishteyaque Mustafa Bukhary, Advocate for the petitioners informed the court that the ITNE has already passed judgments in favour of the petitioners for the payment of their dues under the Wage Board Award.
He urged that the ITNE ought to resort to the powers vested in it for the execution of the judgments passed in the petitioners’ favour; and that the payment of the petitioners’ dues in terms of the judgments in their favour could not be made contingent on the payment of respondents’ dues from the Press Information Department (“PID”).
The court observed that efforts are being made by the ITNE for the satisfaction of the judgments in favour of the petitioners by pressing PID, etc. for the clearance of respondents’ dues so that the said respondents clear their liabilities to the petitioners.
The High Court observed that it ought to be slow in interfering with interim orders passed by Tribunals below.
“Since the impugned order is an interlocutory order which does not suffer from a jurisdictional irregularity, it would not be appropriate for this Court to interfere with the same,” observed the court.
In August the ITNE disposed of the cases after ensuring full payment of Rs 126 million to petitioners.
According to a statement issued by the tribunal, cases of more than 100 journalists were disposed of after payment of Rs. 126,180,084.
