Reaching middle ground: Teachers call off strike after assurances of reinstatement

G-B chief minister assured the demonstrators additional posts will be created.

GILGIT: At least 183 dismissed teachers called off their strike after assurances of reinstatement by the government. The teachers spent Monday night protesting at a camp in sub-zero temperature in Gilgit town.

“The protest has been called off following the chief minister’s assurance to reinstate us,” said Akhtar Hussain, a protester, on Wednesday. The strike, which lasted for about 36 hours, ended late Tuesday evening.



Politician Abdul Wahid mediated the negotiations with Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) Chief Minister Mehdi Shah on behalf of the teachers who had been sacked earlier.

They had set up an overnight camp at Ittehad Chowk outside the G-B Directorate of Education on Monday to press the government to reinstate them. Female teachers also participated in the protest.

“The chief minister assured us that additional posts will be created within a month and we will be accommodated,” explained one educationist who had been part of the negotiating team.

The teachers, appointed over the past six years, were sacked in March after a departmental inquiry declared their appointments illegal. They were later restored through a court order, but only for a short time period.



Another inquiry was conducted in November, which also ruled against them. The sacked teachers have been protesting since.

Meanwhile, police registered cases against at least five teachers for blocking roads and obstructing traffic. The application was filed at a police station by Magistrate Habibur Rahman.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 5^th, 2013.