School principals’ protest enters 18th day

Demonstrators bring out coffin inscribed with 'merit's funeral'


Our Correspondent March 19, 2021

KARACHI:

After 18 days of demonstration, exasperated government school principals protesting for their regularisation brought a coffin inscribed with 'merit ka janaza (merit's funeral)' to the sit-in outside the Sindh Assembly on Thursday.

The protesters, who were appointed as government school principals after sitting an exam conducted by the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Sukkur, had been holding a protest for the past 18 days and staging a sit-in outside the Sindh Assembly for the past three days.

Holding placards and sitting around the coffin signifying the death of merit, they shouted slogans for the fulfillment of their demands.

Read: Principals demand Ghani’s dismissal

The coffin was later taken into custody by the police, which resulted in a heated exchange between law enforcers and the protesters. However, the situation was controlled soon.

Sharing their grievances, the protesters told The Express Tribune that they weren't being made permanent despite passing the test conducted by the IBA, Sukkur.

"It has been 18 days, but the Sindh government doesn't seem to be taking our demands seriously," said one of the protesters.

In response to the Sindh government requiring them to sit a Sindh Public Service Commission exam for reappointment, the protesters maintained that they would boycott the test.

They said their protest would continue until their demands, including regularisation and the cancellation of the SPSC exam, were met.

With regards to Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani's statement about contradictory court orders of separate Sindh High Court benches restricting the government from regularising the principals, the protesters maintained that none of the benches had ordered their dismissal.

The protesters said they had appealed to the Sindh High Court chief justice to take notice of Ghani's statement.

They clarified that in the case referred to by Ghani, a Karachi bench had directed the Sindh chief secretary to scrutinise the principals appointed after passing the IBA test and submit a report to the court.

"After four years in services, we have been dismissed and an advertisement has been published for the appointment of favourite persons through the SPSC," lamented a protester.

Read more: Principals stage sit-in outside PA on 15th day of protest

Later, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Nazish Fatima visited the protesters and assured them of raising their issues at the Governor House.

"I will also ask the PTI leadership to look into the matter," she said.

The written test for the recruitment of headmasters and headmistresses on grade-17 posts in schools scheduled for March 22 has been postponed.

More than 30,000 candidates were to appear in the test.

With additional input from APP

Published in The Express Tribune, March 19th, 2021.

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