Malik Riaz should pay salaries, AAP News employees demanded

According to Baaghi TV, AAP News Islamabad bureau chief Siddique Sajid and the affected employees have written a letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Special Assistant for Information and Broadcasting Lt. Gen. R. Asim Saleem Bajwa.

The letter from the employees of AAP News states that on April 11, 2020, Malik Riaz, the owner of Bahria Town, abruptly shut down AAP News and at the same time, through an e-mail, fired about a thousand staff but assured them that not only will all the dues be paid but also half the salary will be paid from May to July.

The letter said that it has been more than two months now that only half of the March salary has been paid to the staff and the remaining 500 employees are in exile. The management has been repeatedly asked to pay but no hearing has been held.

The employees requested Special Assistant for Broadcasting Asim Saleem Bajwa to ask Malik Riaz to pay the salaries of the employees of AAP News and save the stoves in the houses of hundreds of employees from going out.

It is to be noted that in Lahore also the employees of AAP News staged a protest outside the office a few days ago. A large number of AAP News workers and journalists including Punjab Union of Journalists (PUJ) President Qamar Zaman Bhatti, General Secretary Khawaja Aftab were a part of the protest.

On this occasion, journalists’ organizations and workers chanted slogans against Malik Riaz and staged a sit-in in front of the office. Addressing the gathering, Press Club President Arshad Ansari said that today we have gathered to take the rights of journalists and we will not leave without receiving the rights from those responsible.