Waiting to be heard: Determined teachers and unmoved government
Teachers from far-flung areas continue their protest on the second day.
ISLAMABAD:
Even on the longest day of the year, in the extreme heat of June, the dejected teachers of National Education Foundation (NEF) and Basic Education Community Schools (BECS) continued their sit-in in front of the Parliament House.
They say that the constitutional petition that they had lodged in the Supreme Court of Pakistan during the first week of June 2011 be fixed for hearing immediately. The petition was submitted by Agha Muhammad Ali Advocate on behalf of Fiaqat Hussain and other employees of NEF.
Official sources say the petition is lying in the chamber of the chief justice for his personal attention, where he would fix a date for hearing. If the petition is not heard before June 30, 17,000 teachers will be rendered jobless and 561,000 students receiving free of charge education will be deprived of primary education, said the protesters.
The sit-in started on Monday. “The female teachers have come from across the country, including Sindh, Balochistan, Kashmir and FATA -- they are braving the torturous heat, but the government does not care,” said a protestor.
“Some of them even have their infants with them. The participants of the dharna (sit-in) have spent the night under the open sky without food, shade or toilets,” he added.
However, a number of parliamentarians have been visiting the site of the sit-in, to show solidarity with the participants. They include Federal Minister Khurshid Shah, ex-minister education Sardar Assef Ahmed Ali, Senator Sabir Baloch, Senator Saeeda Iqbal, MNAs Tariq Shabbir, Raheela Baloch, Yasmin Rehman, Azeem Daultana, Akram Jatt and Nafeesa Shah from PPP, Senator Jamal Laghari and Syed Saqlain Bukhari from PML-N.
The protestors have showed their determination to continue their protest till they get a favourable verdict. They have appealed to the government and the chief justice to save 15,000 of the poorest communities and their children from “sliding back into dark ages”.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 22nd, 2011.
Even on the longest day of the year, in the extreme heat of June, the dejected teachers of National Education Foundation (NEF) and Basic Education Community Schools (BECS) continued their sit-in in front of the Parliament House.
They say that the constitutional petition that they had lodged in the Supreme Court of Pakistan during the first week of June 2011 be fixed for hearing immediately. The petition was submitted by Agha Muhammad Ali Advocate on behalf of Fiaqat Hussain and other employees of NEF.
Official sources say the petition is lying in the chamber of the chief justice for his personal attention, where he would fix a date for hearing. If the petition is not heard before June 30, 17,000 teachers will be rendered jobless and 561,000 students receiving free of charge education will be deprived of primary education, said the protesters.
The sit-in started on Monday. “The female teachers have come from across the country, including Sindh, Balochistan, Kashmir and FATA -- they are braving the torturous heat, but the government does not care,” said a protestor.
“Some of them even have their infants with them. The participants of the dharna (sit-in) have spent the night under the open sky without food, shade or toilets,” he added.
However, a number of parliamentarians have been visiting the site of the sit-in, to show solidarity with the participants. They include Federal Minister Khurshid Shah, ex-minister education Sardar Assef Ahmed Ali, Senator Sabir Baloch, Senator Saeeda Iqbal, MNAs Tariq Shabbir, Raheela Baloch, Yasmin Rehman, Azeem Daultana, Akram Jatt and Nafeesa Shah from PPP, Senator Jamal Laghari and Syed Saqlain Bukhari from PML-N.
The protestors have showed their determination to continue their protest till they get a favourable verdict. They have appealed to the government and the chief justice to save 15,000 of the poorest communities and their children from “sliding back into dark ages”.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 22nd, 2011.