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Newspaper hawkers strike continue for 2nd consecutive day

RECORDER REPORT

FAISALABAD: The newspaper hawkers continued their token strike for four hours here on Sunday for second consecutive day.

The hawkers held a protest meeting in Chowk Kutchery Bazar and resolved to continue their token strike till the release of their office-bearers in case the local administration did not take action against the former MNA of the Pakistan Peoples Party.

The meeting decided to discontinue the supply of national and regional newspapers to the government offices in Faisalabad if their office-bearers including Seth Mohammad Amin and 10 others were not released within a week.

The meeting was of the view that the MNA had himself tagged bogus documents along with the application of hawkers in connivance with the local officials and wrongfully implicated the office-bearers of the hawkers union.

The distribution of the newspapers in Faisalabad was again delayed for more than four hours on Sunday owing to the strike.

The protest meeting of the hawkers was addressed by union leaders Malik Mohammed Akhtar, Safdar Ali and local journalists Ejaz Hashmat, Rifat Qadri, Iftikhar Ahmad, and Younis Suleman and many others and demanded immediate release of the arrested hawkers unconditionally and withdrawal of bogus cases registered against them.