PEF partner school teachers’ march on Zaman Park foiled

LAHORE : The police on Saturday foiled an attempt by a large number of teachers and owners of Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) partner schools to stage a demonstration at Zaman Park where private residence of Prime Minister Imran Khan is located.

The demonstrators started their protest against the Punjab government for non-payment of dues to PEF partner schools outside Lahore Press Club and marched towards the Governor House where heavy police deployment blocked their march and during the process some protesters were also manhandled by the police while some were also taken into custody.

As the PM Imran Khan was in the city the demonstrators tried to reach Zaman Park to record their protest but extra police contingent was also deployed at Zaman Park and outside the Chief Minister Secretariat along with water canon to avert any untoward situation and stop the protestors.

The PEF partner schools’ owners and teachers have been protesting against the non-payment of six months dues by the Punjab Education Foundation. They observed that because of the non-payment they were unable to pay salaries to teaching and non-teaching staff besides they were also unable to pay building rents and utility bills, etc.

Earlier on June 9, a large number of teachers and owners had gathered at Faisal Chowk outside Punjab Assembly to record their protest and a government committee had held a dialogue with them with assurances of release of payment by the Punjab Education Foundation. Some schools were subsequently paid the arrears by the PEF but others remained unpaid so far which prompted them to hold the protest demo again.

Talking to The News, Punjab School Education Minister Dr Murad Raas said that PEF had already paid 50 percent of the payment to the schools and remaining payment would be made only after verification of the students enrolled in these schools. He said previously some 250,000 fake enrolments were detected at many PEF partner schools and since millions of rupees were to be paid to the schools verification of students was a must. He said Nadra was on board for the verification process which would start from July 20 and after the verification final payments would be released. He said the schools should wait till the verification process completed.

The minister said many PEF partner schools were in fact beneficiaries of the PML-N and the government would not waste public money on fake enrolments. He said the PEF initiative was aimed to bring out of school children into schools and not to financially support fake enrolments.

Dr Muard Raas further said he had also apprised Prime Minister Imran Khan about the issue in a recent meeting who had assured full support. “Nobody can pressurise me,” he said and added the remaining payment to schools would only be made after verification. He said he himself held two meetings with two different groups over the issue in the past but it was strange they were avoiding verification of the students.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that police had later released the protestors taken into custody. A meeting of MD PEF with the protesters was also held which was presided over by CCPO Lahore Zulfiqar Hameed in which MD PEF assured to resolve genuine issues of the partner schools.