Unpaid for 11 months: Daily wagers lay siege to Fazal’s house

CADD minister assures angry teachers summary will be sent to the federal cabinet

ISLAMABAD: State Minister for Capital Administration and Development Division Dr Tariq Fazal on Wednesday said that a summary to regularise daily wage employees at the government-run schools and colleges in the capital will be presented before the federal cabinet for approval soon.

This declaration, though, only came after scores of disgruntled daily wage staffers of these educational institutions staged a sit-in on the road leading to his Chatha Bakhtawar farmhouse in the capital on Wednesday.

The minister met with representatives of the employees who had blocked the entrance to his home and assured them that their demands of regularization and clearance of pending payments.



The sit-in came after the daily wage employees said they had not been paid for nearly 11 months.

Around 100 days ago, or over three months, 1,800 teaching and non-teaching staff of public schools and colleges in the capital launched their protest against the government for failing to pay them. The teachers have already resorted to boycotting classes.

They said that around 400 daily wagers were formally regularized and had appeared for the mandatory medical examinations. Moreover, their regularization had been approved by the sub-committee of the federal cabinet, but they have not been allowed to join their positions on permanent seats.

Over the past three months, the daily wage employees had resorted to protesting at various locations across the capital seeking justice. This included outside the offices of their immediate superiors at the Federal Directorate of Education and outside the National Press Club.

They even urged the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take notice of their plight as they threatened to commit mass suicide on the altar of justice — the steps of the Supreme Court.



The state minister had last met with representatives of teachers on February 28 when he assured teachers that a summary for releasing their salaries had been approved. But with the funds yet to be transferred into their accounts, he had since limited his interaction with the teachers.

As a result, the teachers said they were forced to go to the one place they were sure he could not avoid them — his house.  “We will give the vote to the party which gives us jobs,” they chanted. They went on to claim that they would disrupt Chaudhry’s campaigns during the upcoming elections and go everywhere wherever he goes to stage a protest.

After the sit-in had lasted for nearly five hours, the minister finally invited representatives of the teachers for negotiations.

Chaudhry agreed to appear before the Islamabad High Court on April 25 to urge the court to give a decision in favour of the employees and that once the court issues the verdict on regularizing teachers, he would implement it within a week.

They have different grades and different issues, Chaudhry said as he explained that the ministry had been unable to find any way to regularize the services of teachers. Moreover, he said that they had even consulted Barrister Zafarullah Khan, the Prime Minister’s special assistant on law. Various court decisions on the matter were also reviewed.

After considering various options we decided to present a summary before the federal cabinet to regularise the teachers, he added.

The teachers have also been demanding that they should get a raise since they are still paid the minimum wage.

The minister also promised to arrange a meeting between the representatives of teachers with Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance Dr Miftah Ismail on Friday.

Asma Safdar, a daily wage teacher protesting outside the minister’s house said that she was due to be regularized by the former Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government and had undergone the mandatory medical exam in 2013. However, the regularization process was halted, prompting protests.

Safdar said that Wednesday was the first time that the state minister had ‘owned’ the issues they had been protesting against.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 12^th, 2018.