17 October 2004	Sunday	02 Ramazan 1425

KARACHI, Oct 16: The Sindh Minister for Education, Dr Hamida Khuhro on Saturday lashed out at the Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association (SPLA), saying at a time when the problems and demands of college teachers are being sorted out , there is no justification of undertaking protest or issuing strike calls.

She took a strong notice of the strike call and protest by the SPLA and said that it was unjustified.

Dr Khuhro pointed out that the present education system and its standard was under hard public criticism and that she was striving her best to improve the quality of education.

She said that she met the office bearers of the SPLA on Friday and discussed in detail the genuine problems of college teachers.

The minister said that directives were also issued to deal with the problems of teachers pending for the past many years.

She announced that orders on promotion cases from grade 17 to 18 were being issued while the matters of promotion from grade 18 to 19 and grade 19 to 20, and issues pertaining to move-overs etc, pending at higher levels, were being pursued by the education department.

Dr Khuhro was of the view that in such a situation, the action of the SPLA for calling a strike and protest was totally unjustified and regrettable.

She said that especially when the teaching process was going on smoothly, the teachers of Sukkur, Hyderabad and other towns had abandoned their colleges to come to Karachi for the demonstration.

The minister made it clear that the loss of teaching time and disturbance in the education process would not be tolerated.

She said that teachers should realize that they were hired for the purpose of educating students and their existence otherwise was unjustified.

Dr Khuhro maintained that if the SPLA members were not interested in carrying out their teaching responsibilities they were free to leave government service so that other "willing teachers" could be hired.- APP