Awan pays tribute to media worker who died of heart attack after being unpaid for 10 months

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information, Firdous Ashiq Awan, on Saturday paid tribute to a media worker who died of a heart attack after not getting his salary from a TV channel for almost a year.

“We pay tribute to his [deceased journalist] spirit and commitment, who lost his life while fulfilling his duties,” said SAPM Awan, noting that “a media worker’s job is not easy in today’s world.”

Awan's statement comes after journalists staged a protest in front of the Ministry of Information on Thursday against the death of cameraman Fayyaz Ali, who suffered a fatal cardiac arrest earlier this week after his employer, a local TV channel, failed to pay him his dues for 10 months.

“The government and the media house owner have decided to pay Rs1 million to the deceased journalist’s family. Indeed nothing can compensate for a human life, but this will temporarily provide relief to his family, and will bring ease in their life,” Awan said.

“I have also decided to give his brother a job in my ministry [Ministry of Information], so that he can overcome financial constraints. We are also allotting him a house in a society, and have decided to name his ill father and mother in the Benazir Income Support Programmme (BISP),” as they fall below the poverty line, she added.

“I praise the media workers, journalism organisations and their leaders for highlighting such an important issue and struggling for providing justice to your colleague,” she added. 

Expressing her condolences she said: “May Allah grant patience to his family, we are working on a comprehensive, long-term plan for all our media workers working in different media houses, who come on TV screen and those who work behind the camera they are our responsibility.”

It is very “saddening that a person who was fulfilling his duties was paid after his death, it is a thought provoking moment and it goes against the  Prophet Muhammad's (P.B.U.H) teachings, soon we will devise a plan to bridge the gap between employer and employee,” she said.

The SAPM said that “the media owners, journalists, government and journalism organisations should sit together and try to overcome prevailing problems,” adding that “the financial issues faced across the country and by the private sector, we should analyse it and with consensus we will try to devise a road map, and form laws accordingly.”

Awan lamented that the media regulatory authorities working in the country do not operate the way they should, adding that if they would have played their role efficiently such events would not take place.