‘PTI stands with teachers’

The protesting principals were released only because of the fear of the media, said Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Khurram Sher Zaman on Tuesday, when he visited the government school principals demanding regularisation. He termed the non-regularisation of the principals an "injustice" and assured the protesters that the PTI was standing with them.

"Had it not been for the media, they [authorities] wouldn't even have let them protest," said the PTI member of Sindh Assembly, expressing solidarity with the headmasters, who were baton charged and arrested a day prior.

"The demand for regularisation should be immediately fulfilled," he stressed.

Zaman went on to criticise the Sindh government over the "ruined education system" in the province.

Read: Sindh police baton-charge, detain teachers protesting for regularisation

"Illiteracy is at its peak in Sindh, where people will find buffaloes in schools and teachers lock girls inside classrooms for not paying tuition fees," he said.

Zaman said he hoped that the Sindh chief minister could explain the reason behind beating up female teachers and that the Sindh Assembly speaker lets the opposition raise the issue in the assembly session today (Wednesday).

"These teachers are the citizens of Sindh, not enemies, and everyone should respect them," the PTI leader went on. "We condemn the misconduct with teachers."

Zaman urged the Sindh CM to take notice of the issue and demanded the immediate dismissal of Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani.

Protests go on

After baton-charge, arrests and eight days, Sindh government school principals demanding regularisation continued their protest outside the Sindh Assembly on Tuesday.

Prior to that, they held demonstrations outside the Karachi Press Club for 15 days.

"Over 900 principals, who were appointed after passing a test conducted by the Institute of Business Administration, Sukkur, have not been regularised," a protester lamented, adding that the protest would only end after the demand was met.

Also read: Sindh cabinet lifts ban on teachers’ transfers

Referring to the happenings of the previous day, when police had baton-charged the protesters and arrested over two dozen of them, the disgruntled principals maintained that they had marched on the Chief Minister's House peacefully and even then they were beaten.

According to them, more than 25 protesters were arrested on Monday night and released past 2am after the protesters at PIDC Chowk agreed to end the sit-in there and return to the Sindh Assembly.

"We have now decided to continue the protest outside the Sindh Assembly," said a protester, adding that it had been over 20 days since they launched the protest and eight days past the sit-in outside the assembly, yet "the government seems non-serious [about resolving the issue], which is disappointing."

Published in The Express Tribune, March 24^th, 2021.