KARAK: Members of several teacher organisations blocked the Karak District Headquarters Hospital Road for more than an hour on Monday to protest the alleged political interference in the education department’s affairs.

The Government Teachers Alliance had given the call for the protest, which began from outside the Karak Press Club and ended outside the Karak DHQ Road.

Tanzeem-i-Asataza finance secretary Khairullah Hawari led the protest, which was attended by teachers from across the district in large numbers.

The teacher leaders alleged that some village nazims unduly interfered in the affairs of schools located in their respective areas.

They said neither nazims were authorised to interference in school affairs nor were teachers answerable to them and instead, there existed a mechanism to monitor teachers at workplace.

The speakers warned things were leading to confrontation between nazims and teachers and if that happened, students would the ultimate sufferers. They asked nazims not to overstep powers and mandate.

The speakers also demanded the immediate issuance of promotion orders of the BPS-12 teachers, who were given BPS-14 of late.

They also said the teachers appointed to different schools in the district after they passed the National Testing Service tests should be paid salary without delay.

The speakers said it was unfortunate that such teachers had been denied salary for many months with the relevant authorities using one pretext or the other for it.

They said all teacher organisations would finalise the future course of action on the matter after Oct 1.

SIX OUTLAWS HELD: The Karak police have claimed to have arrested six proclaimed offenders in the district.

In a statement issued here on Monday, district police officer Mian Naseeb Jan claimed the arrested men were wanted in several kidnapping, murder, murder bid and other criminal cases and that the police had recovered unlicensed weapons and drugs from them.

He said the crackdown on outlaws would continue.

The DPO said the police had decided the launch of a special campaign against non-registered motorcycles in the district on Oct 6.

Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2016