LAHORE, March 25: A large number of technical education teachers staged a sit-in in front of the civil secretariat under the banner of Punjab United Teachers' Association to protest against the Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (Tevta) , which was created through an ordinance in 1999.

The protesters were holding banners and placards bearing inscriptions against the authority and its working. They also chanted slogans against the authority and its top officials.

Earlier, the teachers, who had reached Lahore from all over the province, gathered at the Government Polytechnic Institute for Women, Jain Mandir, and marched up to the civil secretariat.

Addressing the protesters, UTA chairman Mohammad Tariq said Tevta had committed a number of financial, administrative and educational irregularities in its five years of existence. He said the Tevta authorities had not established a check-and-balance system to control irregularities.

He said the Punjab government had concentrated all powers in one person who was maltreating all technical education teachers including those in the BPS-20. He alleged that technical education institutions' principals had literally been made personal employees of industrialists.

Mr Tariq said the government should accept their genuine demands including promotions and move-overs, or the association would give a third-phase protest call for complete academic boycott.

UTA secretary-general Muhammad Arif said the teachers would also go on a token hunger strike, stop Tevta authorities from entering technical education institutions and court arrests in the third phase of the protest.

UTA joint secretary from Multan Muhammad Qausain Naqvi said the Tevta authorities were lavishly spending authority's budget for their personal interests. UTA leaders from Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar, Fort Abbas, Sargodha and other cities also spoke on the occasion.