Abbottabad girls’ college teachers protest against AC, ASP

K-PCTA sets two-day deadline for taking action against officials

ABBOTTABAD: Female teachers at the Government Girls Degree College Abbottabad have demanded the suspension and removal of the Abbottabad assistant commissioner and the assistant superintendent of police after they had allegedly forced their way into the college and misbehaved with the institution’s principal and teachers just before the Eid holidays.

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Colleges Teachers Association (K-PCTA), meanwhile, has set a two-day deadline for action against the officials.

Just before the Eidul Azha holidays, Abbottabad AC Ruhan Burhana along with Abbottabad ASP Taswar Iqbal and Cantonment police station SHO had ‘raided’ the college. Closed circuit video of the alleged raid also went viral showing the officials moving freely in the college.

A four member action committee of the K-PCTA comprising Professor Dilawar Khan, Professor Mumtaz Haider, Professor Waheed and Professor Naeem Jadoon, which was formed to take up the issue with higher authorities, explained that the officials had conducted the raid without any advanced notice and or after taking approval from senior officials of the Education Department.

Moreover, they said that police and district administration officials had created a panic-like situation in the girls’ college by barging into classrooms and taking pictures at a time when some female students were still there.

They warned that unless the officials are suspended and action is taken against them within two days, they will launch a series of protest rallies apart from locking up colleges across the province.

On Wednesday, protesting teachers from the college rallied from the Government Boys College Abbottabad.

Later female teachers also took out protest rally which culminated in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office where office bearers of K-PCTA spoke. Professor Hameed Afridi, Professor Taj Haider and others from K-PCTA said that the teaching community is among the humble segments of society and do not normally come out onto the roads, but the ‘illegal’ and unlawful act by the district administration is unacceptable and intolerable for them.

Professor Dilawar, while talking to media, said that they had tried their best to convince both the AC and ASP to talk the matter out and to make amends for violating the code of conduct at a female institution where no one except the secretary of education apart from violating local traditions.

Burhana, meanwhile, defended his actions as part of a security measure.

“I am a responsible CSP officer and a member of the security advisory committee. Pushcart vendors had set up their carts along a wall of the college and I went to check that,” Burhana told The Express Tribune.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 7^th, 2017.