DPs return renders teachers jobless

The ongoing repatriation of Afghan refugees has left 291 Pakistani teachers who taught in refugee-camp schools unemployed, prompting an organised protest at the Peshawar Press Club on Tuesday.

Representatives of the teachers demanded that the provincial government either absorb the teachers into public schools or provide financial compensation.

The delegation said the sackings followed the repatriation of Afghan families and that neither the government of Pakistan nor the UNHCR has offered the teachers any prospects or support, leaving entire households in the lurch.

PPP's provincial president, Syed Muhammad Ali Shah, told the press that attempts to secure answers from federal and provincial ministers produced no meaningful response, compelling the group to take its case public.

He pointed out that most of the affected teachers were women and only about 100 men were employed on formal appointment letters. He urged compensation in recognition of many teachers' long service in education, some spanning decades.

Speaking on the occasion, PPP's provincial leader and K-P MPA Mehr Sultana pledged political and legal backing. She added that she would soon table a resolution in the provincial assembly and work to build a cross-party effort to press the federal government.

"If we must take this to the courts, we will," she said, adding that the PPP believed in creating jobs for the poor and would raise the teachers' cause at every forum.