PESHAWAR: The ad hoc lecturers of various colleges in Fata again on Monday set-up a protest camp outside the Peshawar Press Club to protest delay in their regularisation.

The teachers, including women, held banners and placards inscribed with demands for regularisation of their jobs, and shouted anti-government slogans.

Fata Ad hoc Lecturers’ Association president Afsar Khan and general secretary Safiullah led the protest.

On the occasion, they said they had been struggling for acceptance of their demands since 2011, but the provincial government was using delaying tactics in that regard.

They said the association had decided to boycott classes and come on roads in protest.

“A total of 215 lecturers had been appointed on ad hoc basis in various colleges of tribal areas in 2011, but they have not been regularised,” Afsar Khan said, adding the provincial government regularised the services of ad hoc lecturers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, but the lecturers in Fata were ignored.

He recalled that Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani, adviser to chief minister on higher education, had promised to raise the issue on the floor of the provincial assembly, but to no avail.

Similarly, Mr Khan said, the Fata secretariat had been withholding salary of ad hoc lecturers since September 2014 which created serious financial problems for them.

However, he said teachers continued to perform duty.

The protesting lecturers threatened to continue their protest campaign till regularisation of their services.

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2016