ISLAMABAD: A case has been filed against owner of a private television news channel in the case of death of a cameraman.
The cameraman of Capital TV, Fayaz Ali, has died of cardiac arrest after he was denied salary for 10 months and then fired from his job.
President of National Press Club Islamabad Shakeel Qarar, in an official statement, said the journalist body had decided to ban coverage by Capital TV in Islamabad for one week and given one-week time to the channel’s management to pay salaries of all the employees and arrears of all those who had been sacked from the organization.
He said, in case of non-compliance, bureau office of Capital TV would be locked in Islamabad.
Shakeel Qarar said an application had been filed against owner of the news channel at Kohsar police station.
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Later, the management of the channel issued a condolence message and informed that all his dues were paid to his heirs. The management also announced that it would pay his salary to his heirs for next sixth months. It said that the deceased had been suffering from cardiac disease for last three years.
Fayaz, resident of Islamabad, was already under severe mental and financial pressure as he was not paid salary for last 10 months. On Tuesday night, when he arrived at his home after being fired from the job, he felt chest pain and soon after that he stopped breathing.
He had continuously been working pinning hope to his organization that it would release his salary the next month, which never arrived.
Capital TV is reportedly owned by a close relative of former advisor to the Chief Minister of Sindh Sharmila Farooqi.
Pakistani media workers are encountering stark financial crisis since the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government came into power. Media moguls have found an excuse for sacking media persons and cutting their salary in the name of generating lower profit than they earlier extracted from hard work of the employees. When media workers try to raise their voices for the right of timely payment of salaries, they are threatened of losing the job.
Earlier, an employee of a Lahore-based private channel had committed suicide after he was not paid salary for several months. Workers of Public News are also deprived of their salaries for about 10 months.
