Baton charging of protesters seemed to have gone out of fashion. That alas, is not to be. Ugly practices die-hard and this one had a shameful revival in Lahore’s life last week. The recipients of the official wrath were teachers of educational institutions that are being denationalized.
Clashes between police and protesting groups of citizens are a virtual every day phenomenon during political governments. Aggrieved citizens have no hesitation coming out on the streets against even the most autocratic political government. But people tend to be more circumspect under military regimes and try to avoid confrontation with authorities. The most genuine of causes are kept dormant when uniformed men are in command of the administration.
This has nothing to do with the manner of the regime’s governance. Military rulers can be benevolent. They are feared all the same. This is for a simple reason. Non-elected regimes do not consider themselves answerable. The line between compassion and insensitiveness can be obliterated without notice.
Consequently, not many street protests take place during military governments. Most citizens are however happy when city roads are not turned in to battlegrounds by agitation. A demonstration at one point can disturb the normal schedule of the whole city. If protesters are mindful of their co-citizen’s comfort, the police harbour no such sentiments. Law enforcers manage what they view as a potential threat to law and order with their specific methods. But it does not follow that police acts independently. It only goes overboard while complying with orders.
Life has been relatively free of protests since October 12, 1999. This has been so because firstly, the people had become disenchanted with the outgoing administration. Secondly because the large mass of the population lives by self-deception and associates its hopes with every new leader. And lastly as implications of protest against a military government are generally not regarded as pleasant. At least such was the experience of the people under the last military set up presided over by the late General Zia ul Haq.
But the dread of a regime starts ebbing after a while. That seems to have happened with teachers working for schools and colleges billed for denationalization under the latest policy of the state. Teachers of these institutions are apprehensive of what would befall them and have decided to campaign for the protection of their rights.
According to them, the policy would make education expensive and take it beyond the means of the poor. One doubts if this is their basic motivation. They do not have a track record of fighting for inexpensive dissemination of education. The sudden expression of concern for the masses is hardly convincing. However, they have a case for themselves and they have every right to pursue it.
Nationalization and denationalization of private education institutions is like any other public sector area in which policies are trapped in circles. Prime Minister ZA Bhutto’s administration took over privately managed institutions, ostensibly with a view to giving teachers a better deal. Members of the teaching profession should be beholden to his administration for raising their emoluments and their level of respectability in a society that was showing signs of turning materialistically mean.
But this does not mean that if teachers had taken to the streets for some cause, the Bhutto administration would have lauded them. In 1983, the Zia regime introduced legislation for reversing it. But his government implemented policies only on a selective basis and did not restore many institutions to their previous management.
Over 1,400 schools and colleges in Punjab were nationalized by the government of ZA Bhutto. The sector comprises about 60 colleges; the rest are schools. These institutions have an estimated strength of 45,000 teachers and more than 1.5 million students. These are formidable numbers who, if the teachers persist in their protest, can spell problems for the government.
At this point in time, the teachers appear determined to resist denationalization. Their various professional organizations have formed a Central Body (CB) that is spearheading the protest. Last week the CB held a protest convention at the MAO College, located close to the Punjab Government’s Secretariat. The congregation had representatives from all over Punjab. Their concerns, besides the cost of education, were terms, conditions and guarantees in the post denationalization dispensation. The main agenda was forestalling what is likely to be their fate because no one trusts official assurances.
It is quite some years that police was posted around a local education institution. I am reminded of the days when police could not enter any local college without the permission of the principal. But things changed a long time back and something that happens once can happen again. Which means that the only surprising aspect of the presence of police outside the college was that, the need for such a measure had arisen after a long period. However, the contingent, armed with batons and defensive shields — it must have been carrying tear gas shells too, was for the teachers and not pupils.
With colleges closed for summer vacations, people using the busy roads around the venue of the convention may have wondered about the presence of police and roadblocks it had set up. They may have concluded that the presence of law enforcers signified a problem that was not linked with the academic pursuits. The confusion was clarified when a large group of male and female teachers emerged from the college and started walking towards the most sacred official building of Lahore. Perhaps its actual status has changed under the military government and following the devolution process but it remains the most potent symbol of the provincial administration’s power.
The group of protesting teachers wanted to proceed towards the secretariat to present a memorandum of demands before the authorities. The police would have none of it. The result was a beating for the people who are supposed to be the mentors of the generation now in schools and colleges. The administration was apparently not expecting female trouble and was not organized to deal with lady teachers. But police is capable of taking anything in its stride. Its members rose to the challenge and tackled females with as much gusto as they bring in to play for handling men. Senior policemen left the scene after surveying it but a Deputy Superintendent level official has been reported by sections of local Press as saying that he regretted the action but he was left with no option. Obviously, he must have been under orders to stop the urchins, whatever the cost. There had to be punishment for intended sacrilege.
What a way of treating teachers. The protesters possibly included individuals who had taught members of the police contingent and their bosses, their children if not that. But they could not have disobeyed the call of duty. However, would the Secretariat’s roof have caved in if they had been allowed to march to the temple and make their protest in person? It was a sad affair and does not cast positive reflection on the state of our society.
Baton charging of protesters seemed to have gone out of fashion. That alas, is not to be. Ugly practices die-hard and this one had a shameful revival in Lahore’s life last week. The recipients of the official wrath were teachers of educational institutions that are being denationalized.
