PPLA rally demands upgradation
of scales, regularisation of jobs
From Our Correspondent
MULTAN: Activists of the Punjab Professors and Lecturers Association on Wednesday took out a rally in support of their demands and demanded the Higher Education Department accept their demands immediately.
Scores of lecturers and professors from various colleges of Multan Division participated in the rally. Punjab Professors and Lecturers Association senior vice-president Prof Ramzan Malik, secretary general Sheikh Muhammad Yousaf and vice-president Malik Irshad led the rally, which started from the Government Civil Lines College and culminated at Chowk Kutchehry. Speaking on the occasion, Prof Ramzan Malik expressed concern over the failure of the provincial government to resolve the grievances of the association despite assurances from the government authorities to solve their problems in the next couple of days. He said that the PPLA was protesting at divisional headquarters across the Punjab for not accepting their Charter of Demands. He said that they had submitted their demands to the government in September in which they had demanded time scale for promotion, one-step upgradation, pay and service protection of 6,500 contractual lecturers and decentralisation of powers to divisional directorates of education. Prof Malik Ramzan said that the PPLA had finally decided for launching a protest across the province because the government was continuously ignoring their demands. He said that a 13-point Charter of Demands was presented to the government and the PPLA would not retreat in this regard. He said that one-step upgradation was due for a long time but the government was not serious to resolve their problems. PPLA additional general secretary Sadia Hassan demanded decentralisation of powers at lower level to resolve the teachers’ community problems and establishment of the Punjab Government Housing Foundation to protect the living rights of teachers. PPLA general secretary Sheikh Muhammad Yousaf said that the body had announced a protest meeting at MOA College, Lahore, on December 14 if their demands were not met. PPLA Multan Division SVP Prof Dr Mazhar demanded regularisation of jobs of contractual lecturers.
