Pending salaries: New promises for capital schools’ protesting staffers

MNA, CADD secretary offer assurances of resolution within 15 days

ISLAMABAD: The protesting staffers of various educational institutes have once again been assured by MNA Tariq Fazal Chaudhary and Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) Secretary Khalid Hanif that the issue of non-payment of salaries will be resolved — this time in 15 days.

Teaching and non-teaching staff from a number of government schools and colleges have been protesting outside the National Press Club for the past two days while demanding that the authorities pay them overdue salaries for the last six months and resolve other issues related to regularisation.

The issue has been pending since the former Pakistan People’s Party government, when teachers took to the streets and a regularisation committee regularised more than 3,000 staffers. It was later reported that many of the applicants were falsified. The number has now come down to around 1,800, while a probe against officers involved in the recruitment of fake staffers is still pending with Federal Directorate of Education.

A group of daily wagers met Chaudhry and Hanif on Tuesday to plead their case. With the local government elections round the corner, the MNA is taking keen interest in such affairs.

Federal Government Teachers Association President Azhar Awan and other officials met the MNA and the CADD secretary. Awan told The Express Tribune that Chaudhry had assured them he would resolve their issue within 15 days.

Some of the protesters called the offer a bluff and requested staffers to continue their protests by assembling outside the press club and boycotting all academic and professional activities.

The CADD secretary said their case is being processed and issues regarding their withheld salaries will soon be resolved. Hanif said that the case was also being looked into by a regularisation committee. “The committee has the prerogative to take any decision,” he said. Awan warned that if the issue was not resolved within 15 days, the protesters will have to take more severe measures.

The FDE has also withdrawn its October 26 directive asking all the area education officers that “no further engagement of daily wagers will be made as no funds will be released in this regard”.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, November 18^th, 2015.