True colours of Hameed Haroon (Daily DAWN) on display!

True colours of Hameed Haroon (Daily DAWN) on display!

There is a general impression all over the country, especially among journalists, that Dawn is the only newspaper in Pakistan where self respect of workers is not injured, and where they are not subjected to forced labour. However, the ground reality is very different.

For over 30 years, the arrogant perennial bachelor and Chief Executive of Dawn, Mr. Hameed Haroon, has been in the forefront in the exploitation of workers. Time and again, he has violated the rights of workers and, in fact, publicly claims to be the biggest litigant who excels in playing tricks to defy and deter court orders for long and indefinite periods, in order to deprive newspaper workers of their legitimate rights.

The dilemma is that his evil genius has succeeded in defying orders of Supreme Court of Pakistan, resolutions adopted by all the four Provincial Assemblies, the National Assembly, the Senate and even the Federal Cabinet. By non-implementing the 7th Wage Award, he is depriving newspaper employees of their legitimate rights since July I, 2000, by securing a restraint order from the Sindh High Court, and is cleverly managing through misrepresentations to avoid notices to the other party, and its consequent appearance in court.

Similarly, a masked forced labour camp has been set up by Mr Hameed Haroon where workers are made to work at much lesser wages than those laid down by the Wage Board Awards, and he also flouts labour laws.

A majority of workers are shown as employees of fake companies to escape from payment of lawful wages and income taxes.

Here I would like to mention my case, which is a glaring example of this brutality. I was employed in Dawn at Faisalabad on March 1, 1983, and was designated as Correspondent, whereas, as per functional duties assigned and performed by me, I should have been designated as a Special Correspondent. This was intentionally done to deprive me of my legitimate grade and allowances which were restored by the Implementation Tribunal for Newspaper Employees, after a long drawn litigation on 10-09-2009.

The true colours of the unscrupulous Mr. Hameed Haroon have been displayed for the world to see and ponder upon. Unfortunately, Mr. Abbas Nasir (Editor DAWN) has chosen to blindly follow his instructions, thereby becoming a tool to propagate his savagery.

Shamsul Islam Naz
Cellular +92(0)300 8665523
http://www.shamsulislamnaz.com