This Supreme Court order will have BOL worried

 JournalismPakistan.com |  Published: 8 May 2018

The Supreme Court of Pakistan has mandated BOL News to pay Rs100 million in a case concerning overdue salaries. The channel claims difficulty in generating revenue due to a lack of commercials.

Summary

KARACHI – The Supreme Court of Pakistan has asked the BOL News Television management to deposit a sum of Rs100 million with them as it resumed hearing a case relating to payment of outstanding staff salaries by the channel.

A BOL representative told the court on Monday that they were not airing any commercials and it would be difficult to deposit such a sum.

Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar asked why BOL did not run commercials.

Former BOL employees had submitted a petition in the court stating they have not been paid five-month of salaries from May to September 2015.

According to a JournalismPakistan.com source, the BOL management contends that they owe staff three-month salaries while ARYTV CEO Salman Iqbal needs to pay two-month of dues.

The ARY management had bought 45 percent shares of BOL News in August 2015 and had planned to launch it in September of that year.

The original BOL management could not launch the channel after a story published in The New York Times accused Axact, the parent company of BOL, of selling fake diplomas to students.

Meanwhile, a BOL insider says that the management has cleared outstanding dues of 60 staff members, but those who have not returned company vehicles and other equipment remain unpaid.

“They have to return the cars and equipment and obtain clearance certificate to get paid,” he said.