Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader Liaquat Ali Jatoi on Tuesday condemned a police crackdown on protesting teachers as they attempted to advance towards the Chief Minister House in Karachi, saying that the provincial government will face consequences if it failed to fulfill teachers' legitimate demands.

Jatoi was accompanied for his press conference by PTI Vice President Sindh Sadaqat Ali Jatoi and party leaders Karim Ali Jatoi and Sardar Ashiq Ali Zour. They were speaking from Dadu's Mehar Town.

On Monday, scores of teachers had gathered at the Karachi Press Club and headed towards CM House to register a protest and demand that the provincial government regularise their jobs.

In order to stop them from advancing, police were ordered to fire at the protesters with water cannons and use tear gas to disperse the crowd. Many teachers were also beaten up with batons and taken into custody.

Referring to the incident, Jatoi termed the incident "regrettable and unacceptable" and claimed that the "Sindhi people will never accept the torture inflicted on teachers".

He added that it was "illegal" for the police to crack down on teachers who had been protesting for their legal rights in a peaceful manner.

Jatoi also regretted that the incident took place on the birth anniversary of the Quaid-e-Azam.

The PTI leader further accused the Sindh government of failing to deliver in the education sector despite allocating billions of rupees and having access to foreign funding to improve education standards.

He alleged that "thousands" of schools in interior Sindh were non-functional and that seven million children were deprived of education because the government was not spending more on their education.

He mocked the PPP's old slogan Roti, kapra or makaan (Food, clothing and shelter), saying that instead of providing the people of Sindh with the basic necessities of life, the ruling party had robbed the population's right to live in peace.

Police chief 'extremely concerned'

The Inspector General (IG) of Sindh Police, A.D. Khawaja, also expressed "serious concern" over the use of violence by police in dispersing teachers protesting outside the Karachi Press Club.

He directed Karachi police to avoid the undue use of force and coordinate with the organisers of the protests to avoid any unpleasant consequences.

He further stated in a press release that it was the duty of every citizen to respect the law and desist from unlawful assembly in accordance with Section 144 of the Criminal Procedures Code when imposed by the Home Department.