June 29, 2007	Friday	Jamadi-us-Sani 13, 1428

LAHORE, June 28: Neither opposition nor treasury paid heed to MMA representative Arshad Baggu’s suggestion on Thursday that their salary should be reduced to pay a Rs1,000 allowance to each schoolteacher.

On a privilege motion moved by MMA’s Ehsanullah Waqas that schoolteachers had been protesting for not giving them education allowance, he asked the government to accept their ‘just’ demands.

Responding to it, education minister Imran Masood said providing them (schoolteachers) Rs1,000 allowance a month meant that the government needed an annual budget of Rs3 billion for the purpose. Though the minister confessed that their salary package was low and needed to be improved besides settlement of their promotion matters, he gave reference of the NWFP and Sindh where no such allowance was being awarded to teachers.

Instead of giving a clear-cut stance of the government whether it would provide such allowance to schoolteachers or not, Imran Masood said, it was in negotiation with two groups of teachers to discuss their problems.

On a point of order, Arshad Baggu claimed that all other provinces were giving this allowance to their teachers. He said the government should curtail its expenditure on luxuries besides reducing perks and privileges of parliamentarians so that funds could be generated for teachers’ allowance. However, both the opposition and treasury members kept a mum.