Teachers’ demand for regularisation met with batons, water cannon

Police on Monday used batons and water cannon against teachers who wanted to hold a protest in front of the Sindh Assembly, which falls in the red zone.

The teachers who have been demanding regularisation, pay protection and salary increment gathered at the Karachi Press Club before attempting to move towards the red zone. But the police reached the site of the protest with a water cannon to stop them from advancing.

The protesters first tried to move towards the Chief Minister House, but the police stopped them on Maulana Deen Muhammad Wafai Road. They then marched towards the provincial assembly, but the police arrested some of them.

A delegation from the school education & literacy department (SELD) held table talks with the protesting teachers, and agreed that the summary that is pending with the law department will be sent to the CM after getting it from the chief secretary.

On this assurance from the SELD delegation, the teachers decided to end their protest. After the success of the negotiations, the police also released the arrested teachers. One of the protesters, Abdul Manan Memon, told The News that the provincial government had appointed some 3,800 teachers in 2018 through the Sukkur IBA.

He said that those who had cleared the test and interviews had been hired, following which they had joined their duties in 2019 in various districts of the province. He also said that the government had promised these teachers that they will be regularised, but then a new batch was hired through the Sukkur IBA after conducting the same test and interviews.

He pointed out that the old batch of 3,800 teachers is still waiting to be regularised, while the new batch has already been regularised. Therefore, he explained, the new batch of teachers who are yet to join their duties will be seniors, while the old batch is still struggling to be regularised.

On January 13, the SELD had moved a summary to the law department seeking its legal opinion on the regularisation of these teachers. However, the law department on January 24 returned the summary to the SELD after raising a few objections.

Later, the SELD cleared those objections and resent the summary to the law department on May 26. Since then no progress has been made to resolve the issue. This is why the teachers held a protest so they can put pressure on the SELD to move the summary to the CM for approval.

The SELD secretary has assured the teachers that the summary will be moved to the office of the CS, and it will later be forwarded to the CM for the final approval. On this assurance, the teachers announced that they will not hold a protest for a week, during which time the process is expected to be completed.