The last straw: Teachers’ protest to continue until demands are met

Education minister says govt will not be blackmailed by sit-ins.

KARACHI:

The teachers’ sit-in to protest their unpaid salaries since August 2012 entered its second day on Thursday with the pledge that they will not leave until their demands are met.

They lashed out against the government, claiming that one Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) education minister gave them the jobs and another had declared them illegal.

The 200 protesters represent the 3,600 teachers who received their appointment letters in June 2012 on the instructions of former education minister, Pir Mazharul Haq, but have not received their salaries for the last two years.

The protesters shouted slogans against the education department’s additional chief secretary, Dr Fazlullah Pechuho, who in one of his statements had said that the protesting teachers were appointed in violation of the government rules and regulations.

“We have been performing our duties regularly since the time of appointment but the government had not paid anything,” said Abu Bakar Abro, who led the protesters under the banner of ‘New Teachers’ Action Committee’. “The government even asked us to perform election duties at various polling stations across the city and we obliged.”

The same teachers had taken to the streets in May too, but had ended their protest after being assured by the district South deputy commissioner that their concerns would be resolved in 10 days.

This time, however, they were adamant not to move until their demands were met. Not even education minister Nisar Khuhro and Information minister Sharjeel Inam Memon, who appeared with their entourage of heavily armed guards sometime after midnight on Thursday, could convince them otherwise.

“Do you trust me?” Memon repeatedly asked the crowd, whose silence resonated louder than his words. The two leaders asked the protesters to end their protest on the assurance that their issue will be resolved within a week.

“The party leadership has itself come to you and we assure you that your concerns will be addressed within a week tops,” said Memon. “You may sit here till the end of the week or you may go back to your homes and wait for the decision.”

After the PPP leaders left, however, the teachers huddled together to discuss their next plan of action and resolved that they will not be as gullible as last time.

“It was the same Sharjeel Memon and Nisar Khuhro who had termed our appointments illegal,” he screamed at the crowd. “This time, we will not go away until our demands are met.”

“Through this sit-in, we want the world to see how the self-proclaimed saviours of democracy treat their teachers,” remarked Abro. With the PPP official song playing in the background and several PPP flags in the hands of the protesters, many of them claimed they had been cheated by leaders of the very political party they had entrusted their votes with. “They will come asking for votes again,” remarked one teacher, who has been teaching at a primary school in Nazimabad since the last two years. “Then we will teach them a lesson for their indifference towards us,” he said resignedly.

Later, Nisar Khuhro held a press conference in which he resolved that the government will not be blackmailed into accepting the unjust demands through sit-ins.

“PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and I, being the education minister, have this unwavering dedication to rectify the mistakes that were made in the past,” he said, referring to around 13,000 illegal appointments that were made around two years ago in Karachi against the 1,500 teaching and non-teaching posts. “We have made this tough decision to not endorse these illegal appointments.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 5^th, 2014.