Labour federations warn govt against closing Geo TV

ISLAMABAD: Apart from the political divide of the country over the ongoing row, Pakistan’s leading labour federations have also joined the voice in support of Geo television channel saying any punitive action against the channel could render hundreds of thousands of directly and indirectly engaged employees jobless.

All Pakistan Federation of Labour on Sunday warned the government against taking extreme action of closing down country’s most popular television channel Geo which could cause miseries of hunger to thousands of employees jobless all over the country. It would be recalled that Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists has also taken a notice of the report that in case of closing down more than a thousand Geo workers could be rendered jobless.

Talking to the News/Jang by telephone Aurangzeb Durrani, President APFL said “The wrangling between government and the media persons should not in any way lead to the extreme where the poor workers suffer”. He advised Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority which has issued a show cause notice to Geo to take care of the large number of employees who could be affected due to any punitive action against the channel or media house.

He paid tributes to the anchor and senior journalist Hamid Mir for sustaining serious bullet injuries and still showing courage to continue his mission of saying truth. He said “Hamid Mir needs to be respected and protected for his steadfastness by all instead of targeting him as he is still alive after receiving six bullets in his body”.

He warned that a countrywide protest could erupt if such a step is taken against Geo television channel most popular among the masses of the country. Meanwhile, Pakistan Workers Federation Secretary General Zahoor Awan said “Any action which leads to closing down Geo would cause great misery for the poor workers which cannot be tolerated at any cost”. Talking to this correspondent from Karachi, Awan said “while we support and respect the services that our armed forces and the premier intelligence agencies had rendered for the nation and we will be behind them in defending the motherland but we will not allow closing down of a big television channel on the whims of few”.

“More than a hundred thousand workers were engaged directly and indirectly with the largest television channel and the media house whose jobs have been put on stake by the unfortunate turn of the tiff with the authorities and everyone in the country would oppose their rendering jobless” said the PWF secretary general.