Protesting educators suspended

RAWALPINDI:

The district education authorities have issued showcause notices to teachers, over their protest against the privatisation of government schools, and changes to pension rules and leave encashment, under the Punjab Employees Efficiency, Discipline Act (PEDA) 2006.

The department has suspended protesting teachers over non-attendance and anti-government slogans as schools and colleges remain shut for the second week.

The protesters say demonstrations and sit-ins including closure of educational institutes and pen-down strike would continue until the approval of their three main demands.

They said they would not respond to the suspension show-cause notices while threatening to cordon off the offices of those officers issuing the notices.

Government school teachers, college professors as well as clerks and nonteaching staff are part of the strike.

They say they will continue their strike with classrooms to stay shut with the government machinery also affected. Around 44 government offices across Punjab would be stay shut over the next 48 hours, said those leading the protests.

The collective of patwaris (land registrars) have also thrown their weight behind the protesters. They said they will stop the issuance of property registries and land ownership documents from today (Monday).

The protests have also impacted the province-wide anti-dengue campaign since yesterday (Sunday).

Defying detentions

As part of the protests, close to three dozen associations and collectives of government employees had taken part in a sit-in outside the provincial government’s secretariat in Lahore that resulted in clashes with the police.

At least 212 teachers were said to be in custody, with the protest leaders saying they would move the high court against their confinement.

Multiple non-governmental organisations as well as parents of students at government schools were expected to be part of the protest today (Monday).

The parents are against privatisation of government schools which they say would result in an ‘exorbitant’ increase in fees. A meeting of leaders of various protesting organisations were scheduled to lead a rally from Islamia Higher Secondary School No.1 Murree Road at 10am today (Monday).

Professor Ansar Nasir, who heads the Punjab Professors and Lecturers Association, said that the government colleges and offices across the Rawalpindi Division will be closed on Monday.

He contended that the caretaker government ‘without mandate was selling government schools due to terms dictated by the International Monetary Fund’.

He added that government colleges would meet the same fate. The Punjab School Education Department had released a list of 11,048 public schools slated for privatisation, including 1,134 schools in the Rawalpindi division.

This includes all their assets including buildings, playgrounds, and laboratories. “About 50 per cent of government employees, doctors, nurses will be dismissed from service with a golden handshake,” claimed Prof Ansar.

Chaudhary Mubashir, who is with the All Pakistan Clerks Association, said that his collective’s members were headed to Lahore to participate in the main protest.

“Meanwhile, sit-ins would continue across the six districts of Rawalpindi Division that includes Rawalpindi, Murree, Attock, Chakwal, Jhelum and Talagang,” he said.

There will be daily strikes and rallies from today (Monday).

Other leaders reiterated their resolve to continue the protests in the face of ‘torture, detentions, arrests, show cause notices, and suspensions’ while emphasizing that government educational institutes won’t resume classes till the acceptance of their demands.

Suspended employees including educator Muhammad Hussain and clerks Faisal and Shakur were among those protesting on Sunday.