Hyderabad Union of
Journalists
Waseemullah
As journalism is considered is the
eye of the society and individuals related to it are usually sensitive and
free-minded therefore they look at every ingredient of the environment.
Therefore to see the problems getting solved, a journalist puts that under his
pen and that is the matter which causes him to face the harshness and the
suppression. For instance, the empty handed journalists become a barrier for
such imbalanced aspects of the society. For this purpose journalists of all
over the city have to form a unit at a single plate form. To make it done
practically, a better and a suitable way is to organize a legal and disciplined
union. Where all the journalists could work in a form of a firm whether which
organization they belong to, help only broaden journalistic paths. Journalists
from all over the country felt the importance of this act, so in the view of
such objectives several unions came into being. Following are as follows:
1-All Pakistan newspapers' society
(APNS)
2-Counsil of Pakistan newspapers'
editors (CPNE)
3-Pakistan federal union of
journalists (PFUJ)
All Pakistan newspapers' employs confederation
(APNEC)
The first two mentioned unions were concerned with the owners of the
newspaper, staff members and editors While rest of the two concerned with the
member journalists and employs of different newspaper organizations. APNS and
CPNE used to look over the business and policy of the newspapers. While PFUJ
and APNEC used to affiliate the unions of journalists and employs of different
newspapers and magazines at Karachi, Hyderabad, Quetta, Bahawalpur, Multan,
Faisalabad, Lahore, Rawalpindi and Peshawar. Mind it, Hyderabad union of
journalists (HUJ) was also affiliated with PFUJ which was established in 1954
AC and still it is striving for the welfare of the journalists of Hyderabad.
During Ayyub's Government in spite of organizing National Press Trust
(NPT) and the implementation of press laws and the coward behavior of the
editors and the owners of the newspapers, authorities were not satisfied with
the performance of the journalism. Because the most important part(more or less
all the journalists) was collaborated with the liberal PFUJ. In such a typical
situation PFUJ leaded a national protest even despite the terrific press laws
of Ayyub's government which the newspapers owners joined helplessly. On 21st
September the three major ingredient of the industry APNS, CPNE and PFUJ first
time united and formed a Joint Action Committee (JAK). Altaf Hussain was
recruited as the convener of JAK. Consequently the government was made to talk
over the matters by dint of a great struggle because the journalists of the
whole country were united for same objective. It is the reason that today,
media is conceived as the third one big power of the state.
PFUJ and APNEC kept working together till 1977 even in the presence of
two schools of thoughts i-e Rightists (religious) and Leftists (socialists).
But in early 1978, PFUJ divided into such ideological groups. The members of
rightist thoughts joined Rasheed Siddiqui group while the rest of the members
of leftist thoughts remained in Berna group as Minhaj Berna was the founder of
PFUJ.
Both of the groups organized their
own committees and built their separate offices all over the country.
Government dedicated Rasheed Siddiqui
group and presented it as a nominee of the public, journalists and employs of
the press. Government also granted the membership of Journalists Village Board
to Rasheed Siddiqui group. It was due to the similarity in the mutual
understanding of the Rasheed Siddiqui group and Martial law administration.
In 1979, PFUJ began to protest
against the censorships implemented upon the press. That protest caused the
journalists to suffer from a number of hurdles, one of those strokes was, to
arrest the journalists of the leftists' school of thoughts. The Hyderabadi
journalism also suffered a lot at that time as Mr. Nisar Channa was arrested
from the hometown while Abd-ul-Ghani Dars and Zahid Samoon got themselves
arrested after they reached Lahore. Later on they were sentenced to be
imprisoned for one year along with ten lashes.
Berna group remained suppressed in
such era Siddiqui group had got a great support by government but due to some
internal conflicts it broke up into two sects. Obviously one group remained
Siddiqui group while another called Dastoor Group. But no longer this
partiality remained to exist and no sooner did Siddiqui group dissolved into
Dastoor group and collectively called with the same name. PFUJ faced a variety of afflictions and that
effected different divisions except HUJ. HUJ always remained stable in the
field and united from inside till 2012. Even during the extreme linguistic
riots during 1992, when half of the Karachians and Hyderabadians including
journalists were against rest of the half. HUJ neither divided on linguistic
basis nor on ideological basis.
HUJ worked for a long time without
any office but in early 80s this problem solved, when Radio Pakistan shifted
from Helmsted Hall to its new building, that hall was made the first office of
HUJ. HUJ also has got an honour that one of its member Mr. Aqeel Ibraheem
became the president of PFUJ Dastoor group in 1990s.
In 2012, a turn occurred in the
history of HUJ as a unit of Berna group was established in Hyderabad before the
elections. Eventually HUJ also divided into Berna group and Dastoor group. For
instance, Berna group further divided into two groups just after the elections
held in 2013 due to a clash upon some mutual interests. Today, there are three
groups in HUJ which are as follows:
Dastoor group
President: Farhan Effendi, Secretory
General: Ifran Arain.
Berna group 1
President: Junaid Khanzada, Secretory
General: Javed Nisar Channa.
Berna group 2
President: Khalid Khokhar, Secretory
General: Mahaish Kumar.
Nowadays it is conceived that the
group of PFUJ which the Javed Khazada's group affiliates to, is more strong and
influent than rest of the two as it is also recognized by International
Federation of Journalists (IFJ). Recently KUJ announced the allotment of plots
for member journalists along with the life insurance. This resolution was
raised by a member of HUJ at the funeral of a journalist Usman Shaikh.
In the view of long termed-unity in
HUJ, it has obviously proved itself as a successful one but still some
journalists states that, trade unions are limited only up to the tittle right
now. These aren't that much stable even to protect the rights of all the
journalists equally. The function of unions has remained only to work for the
owner's interest or protests upon the incidents like Hamid Mir's one.
