KARACHI:
As the teachers’ protest at Boat Basin intersection entered its ninth day, the education minister once again appeared at the site to present a proposal from the government.
The minister, Nisar Khuhro, visited the protesters at their camp at around 7pm. He started off by saying that the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leadership had been meeting every day to discuss the issue. “I am here for the third time on the direction of the PPP co-chairperson Bilawal Bhutto,” he said.
According to Khuhro, the situation had arisen due to the illegal activities of some officials, who he did not name for obvious reasons. The 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.
Khuhro, however, had come to ask the teachers to end the protest and start preparing for the National Testing Service exams, which they would have to undertake to secure their jobs that would open in the current fiscal year.
“I ask you to place your trust in the PPP government,” he said. “We are going to announce vacancies for 1,425 teaching posts soon. I suggest you to take this opportunity and receive your appointment letters on merit.” The minister warned that failure to take the tests would mean that the seats would be given to other candidates.
“This is my final message to you,” said the minister, before making his way to leave. The protesters, however, had other ideas. Screaming their rejection of his proposal, some lay down in front of his car to stop him from leaving. Others smashed the car windows of his coordinator, Ejaz Junejo.
Amid all this, Khuhro remained adamant that the PPP government would not be swayed by any form of blackmailing and that the candidates would have to undertake the NTS exams again. Subsequently, the police intervened to disperse the crowd and allow Khuhro and his entourage to escape.
After the minister had left, some of the teachers attempted to march towards Bilawal House. They managed to reach Bilawal Chowrangi where they camped for around 10 minutes before some of them attempted to force their way through the security barriers on the side road that leads to the Bilawal House block. It was at this point that the police started baton-charging the protesters and even used the water cannon to force them to disperse.
According to one of the protesting teachers, Hassan Abbasi, around 100 protesters have been detained by the police. “We have detained almost all of the protesters who managed to reach Bilawal Chowrangi,” said ASI Arshad of the Boat Basin Police station, claiming that they had arrested around 25 people. “We had let them protest peacefully until they had stayed at Boat Basin but when they tried to reach Bilawal Chowrangi, we dispersed them with water cannon and batons.” He said that no one is permitted to protest at Bilawal Chowrangi.
The rest made their way back to their camp at Boat Basin where they pledged to continue their sit-in. The police, however, forced them to evacuate the premises.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 12th, 2014.
COMMENTS (2)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
there is nothing wrong with taking a test. since they were scandaled into fake jobs, it only makes sense to make those jobs real jobs on merit, so that the salaries can be official and not just another useless drain on our taxes.
if they say theyve been working as teachers for 2 years,im sure they should have no problems in taking the test with their experience. and for the betterment of democracy. do they really want to continue with a "fake" job ? any rational human being would want to make their real job authentic.
Common people of Sindh, stand up like Qadri & Imran against this feudal system! even if you don't have a Qadri or Imran within you they have shown that strong will can get you to the federal HQ... you could at least go to the provincial HQ? block the country from north to south, time to end this Bilawal & Sharif Dynasties!