GILGIT: Demanding service structure and clear rules for their promotion, hundreds of male and female teachers of government schools staged demonstrations in the seven district headquarters of Gilgit Baltistan and announced boycott of classes across the region till June 10.

The GB Teachers Association had given the call for protest.

The teachers, who had also brought their students on roads, said that if their demands were not accepted they would continue their protests. The protesters also blocked the main roads of Gilgit, Skardu, Hunza Nagar, Ghizar, Diamer and Ghancha besides the Karakoram Highway.

Because of the protests traffic remained suspended between GB and rest of the country.

Addressing the protesters in Gadi Bag, Gilgit, the GB Teachers Association’s president Shahid Ali said that the teachers had been demanding their genuine rights for last many years, but the authorities were not paying heed.

Announces boycott of classes till June 10

He said that it was an injustice that the government school teachers retired without promotion to the next grade.

He said that the government should announce proper service structure and promotion criteria for teachers.

He vowed that they would continue their strike till acceptance of their demands.

He announced the boycott of classes till June 10 in all government schools across GB to build pressure on the government to solve their problems.

Dilawer Shah, the association’s information secretary, said that they had not asked the students to join the protest, but they were just supporting their teachers voluntarily.

Another teacher, Ahmed Hussain, said that the government and officials of the education department had not been showing interest to solve their problems.

He said that the GB chief minister had announced approval of time-scale promotion formula for the teachers two years ago in Skardu, but it was not implemented.

Published in Dawn, June 6th, 2014