KARACHI: A number of teachers protesting against ‘corruption and flawed policies’ of the education department and seeking reforms in their service structure were baton-charged near the D.J. Science College on Wednesday when they attempted to march on CM House, said officials and witnesses.

Five teachers received injuries as police also used a water canon to keep the agitating crowd away from the so-called red zone, while six other teachers were detained.

According to the Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association (SPLA), which held a meeting of around 1,500 of its members at the historical building of the D.J. Science College before staging the protest rally, they have several demands but their main demand revolves around the service structure. They seek the implementation of what they call a four-tier formula, which has been implemented in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in Sindh also.

The supreme council of the teachers association at the national level condemned the police action against the protesting lecturers and professors and announced that it would observe a black day across the country against it on Thursday.

President of the SPLA’s Hyderabad region Shahjehan Panhwar told Dawn that the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab governments had been using the four-tier formula for the past five years. However, in Sindh, there were teachers who had not been promoted for the past 20 years. Also, time-scale was granted to professors and lecturers in Balochistan but their counterparts in Sindh were being deprived of it, he said. He further said that an MPhil allowance was being given in Punjab but no such allowance existed in Sindh.

Mr Panhwar said around 3,500 vacancies of lecturers and professors had not been filled for a considerable period in Sindh though they were sanctioned posts for which budget was allocated every year.

Last year, he said, the provincial minister for education in his talks with the teachers had agreed to fulfil their demands but nothing materialised, prompting them to launch a movement for the ‘revival of the four-tier formula’.

On Wednesday, around 1,500 teachers attended a SPLA meeting and were about to march towards CM House when they were attacked by the police at the college gate, he said.

He said five teachers were injured, who were shifted to a hospital for first aid, while six professors were detained. “We even did not touch flowerpots and were exercising our democratic right of holding a peaceful rally, but the police used high-handed tactics against us,” said the SPLA office-bearer.

Karachi-South DIG Dr Jamil Ahmed told Dawn that the police had politely told the protesting teachers that they should avoid going towards CM House as there was a ban on rallies in the red zone. But they were bent upon violating the ban for which the police resorted to a “light action” to disperse them at the college, he said.

The officer said the held teachers would be released after some time.

Following the episode, Karachi Commissioner Asif Haider Shah talked to the representatives of the protesters and sought details of their demands so that they could be presented before the chief minister, the SPLA leader told Dawn.

Mr Panhwar said as the teachers would observe a ‘black day’ against the police action on Thursday across the country on the call of their supreme body, “we will stage protest demonstrations outside the press clubs in Sindh”.

Published in Dawn, March 31th, 2016