LAHORE, June 9: Around 70 sacked senior teachers of the Aitchison College have made an impassioned appeal to Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry to take suo motu notice of their illegal termination from service by the principal.

A judicial commission should also be constituted to probe the ongoing financial and administrative irregularities in one of the premier educational institutions of the country, said affected teachers at a news conference at Lahore Press Club on Sunday.

Urging re-instatement of all sacked teachers immediately, they said the principal also banned their entry to the departments where they had been teaching for the last 20 years or so.

“The Board of Governors should be re-constituted on merit and the undue interference of the Punjab governor in the college affairs should be done away with after terminating Principal Shamim Saifullah Khan,” said Mian Asif who was accompanied by his sacked colleagues Manzar Ali Khan, Yousaf Kamal and others.

The Aitchison College principal had terminated the services of nearly 60 senior teachers besides dozens of junior staff members with immediate effect 'without assigning any reason or following any procedure’.

The teachers even included those who had received the ‘Best Teacher Award’ during the last few years. Three teachers, who were earlier terminated and later reinstated on court orders, had also been removed from service.

The affected faculty members included acting Senior School Headmaster Mian Muhammad Asif, Prep School’s Deputy Headmaster Mian Shahzada Ali, Dr Hafiz Shaukat Ali of Islamiat department (only PhD at the institution), heads of departments Shahid Siddique (economics), Shaukat Ali (accounting), Izhar Ali Zafar (Islamiat), Asif Bajwa (computer science), Asma Zia (English), Waqar Azeem (Pakistan studies), Naeem Raza (mathematics) and Manzar Ali Khan (physics).

“It is for the first time in the 126-year history of Aitchison that services of such a big number of senior faculty members have been terminated and that too without assigning any reason. The action has been taken by a person who cannot even sit in the principal office for more than three hours because of his age,” said Mr Asif.

According to him, the sacking was aimed at manipulating the admission process due to start in the next couple of days. “A committee should be constituted to monitor the forthcoming admissions to the college. It is a test case for the new administration in the province and a challenge for the party that has always been claiming to patronise and promote knowledge and education,” he said.

To a question, Mr Asif said the affected teachers would continue with their struggle for their reinstatement through peaceful means.

Later, the sacked teachers staged a demonstration outside the press club to press for acceptance of their demands.