PESHAWAR: Unpaid for five months, around 150 male and 100 female lecturers from Fata have been oscillating between hope and despair.

“Some teachers have been forced to live on debt as they have been facing financial problems,” said a woman lecturer with an infant protesting for around a week at a camp set up on a footpath near the Peshawar Press Club.

The woman said like others protesters, she was hired in 2011 and their contracts were extended from time to time but often they remained unpaid for months before their contract was extended in between.

She said the teachers had been performing duty but they had not been paid salary since September 2015.

Around 250 young women and men from different parts of Fata have been sitting on the footpath in miserable condition seeking the attention of the relevant authorities for the regularisation of their services like the 2010 batch of lecturers.

“I carry my infant all the day. I cannot feed him on the road. I am forced to come and sit in the protest camp as the government has abandoned us despite our valuable services,” said a veiled woman lecturer from Jamrud while trying to calm down her crying baby.

Shameeda complained she had been worked as a lecturer in Kurram Agency for four years but neither the federal government nor the provincial government was taking her problems seriously.

“We blocked the road in front of Fata Secretariat and an official assured us of looking into our problem by Monday. However, we have no hope,” she said.

Alia Bibi from Jamrud said protesters wanted to be regularised as they had been working since 2011 in Fata.

Another adhoc lecturer from Mohmand Agency Saira said instead of encouraging women teachers working in Fata, the government had been following adhocism on the matter.

She said the lecturers risked their lives to perform duties but they had been denied permanent job and even salary.

Sabina from Kurram Agency said for the last five years, all teachers in Fata had been performing duties despite clashes and militancy.

She said for one week, the teachers had been protesting but neither any official nor the governor took notice of their misery.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2016