ISLAMABAD, Mar 05 (APP): Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights on Tuesday issued directives to the management of Pakistan Television Corporation to take steps to hold meeting with the representatives of the union for settlement of non-payment of salaries and pensions of the employees of the corporation.
The meeting chaired by Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar took notice of the non-payment of salaries and commutation of the PTV employees and asked the MD to settle the matter within one week.
Moreover the committee asked the government and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to appoint new MD of the PTV within a fortnight.
The committee also referred the issue of unilateral appointment of Arshad Khan as Acting Managing Director by the PTV Board of Directors to the NA Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting so that it could review the issue and suggest amendments in relevant law to avoid such situations in future.
The committee also expressed its displeasure over non-implementation of Supreme Court directives for appointment of regular MD of the corporation and said that the acting MD failed to justify his appointment on the post by unilateral decision of the Board of Directors.
Earlier briefing the meeting, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said that main problem of the PTV was that its expenditures were more than its income and presently it was facing Rs 12 billion deficit. He said the Federal Cabinet had directed PTV management to present its business plan but it failed to do so. He said that it was proof of mismanagement as despite having eight channels, the PTV was running in loss.
He said that Arshad Khan did lobbying for his appointment as chairman and MD PTV .
Fawad said that in the past PTV Chairman Ataul Haq Qasmi, used powers of MD PTV and now Arshad Khan has made appointments on hefty packages. He opined that presently there was no management in the PTV as there was no chairman of the PTV Board of Directors and appointment of acting MD was not done following legal procedure. He said it was unfortunate that inefficient people join national institutions after lobbying and destroy them, while the efficient people have great opportunities in private sector. Chaudhry Fawad said that PTI after coming to power ended censorship on the PTV and opened its doors for opposition but that policy has been reversed by the present acting MD. He also said that the PTV highups hiked their salaries and perks while the poor employees were protesting for payment of their salaries and pensions. He said that the PTV also missed an opportunity to increase its income by its technical knockout from PSL bidding as it appeared its was an intentional move to benefit someone else.
He said that many members of the PTV board have complained that its meeting is summoned on one day notice and only the few members close to MD could attend it due to short notice and unilateral decisions were made in it.
Farhatullah Babar said that the PTV board should respond as to why the Supreme Court directives about appointment of regular MD were not implemented.
Senator Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif said that it appeared that the PTV Board of Directors was acting beyond its powers
Earlier MD PTV Arshad Khan briefed the committee about the present position of the PTV and the financial crisis of the institution.
VNS Islamabad
