Notice served on organisation for service termination

PESHAWAR: A senior journalist has served a legal notice on a Lahore-based digital news organisation for abruptly terminating his service contract.The notice sent through the lawyer Inayaur Rehman advocate stated that the journalist, Ghulam Dastageer, received an email message on April 3, 2023 from the chief executive officer of Saar Digital Private Limited which runs a news website, loksujag.com. This email, “to his utter surprise, was a termination message.”

The lawyer said the email was not limited to just the employment contract termination but it went too far and raised serious questions over his performance.Calling the email devoid of any legal justification, he said it was a settled principle of the law that a contract cannot be terminated unilaterally on the basis of mere allegations and without giving the employee his legal right to respond to those allegations.The lawyer said the contract termination message was sent to his client only hours before he was scheduled to fly to London to participate in the South Asia Journalism Programme, a fellowship run by the Chevening Secretariat.

“This untimely message caused serious mental anguish, stress and emotional distress to my client. The fact that soon Ghulam Dastageer was abroad for around two months meant that he could do nothing immediately to raise his voice against his illegal termination,” said Inayatur Rehman advocate.