HYDERABAD, July 2: The All-Sindh Primary Teachers Association has threatened boycott of local body elections if services of contract teachers were not regularized and teachers appointed in 1998 were not reinstated in service. In a statement issued here on Friday, the central president of the association, Mr Rafique Jarwar, said excesses committed against teachers by the Sindh chief minister and the education department had no parallel in educational history of Sindh.

He said the primary teachers would hold a protest demonstration outside the Karachi press club on July 7 if their demands were not accepted.

He warned that if the services of teachers on contract were not regularized and a notification in respect of other demands was not issued, the primary teachers would boycott the local body elections duties.

SPLA: The Sindh Professor Lectures Association (dissident group) has warned that if the Sindhi Language Bill 1973 with regard to teaching of Sindhi language to all students in Sindh was not implemented, the college teachers will stage hunger strike outside the Hyderabad press club on July 18.

At a meeting held here on Friday, the SPLA demanded that the Sindh governor should restore 32-year-old procedure of checking answer copies of class-XI of Sindhi students who appear in Urdu compulsory examination.

Prof Liaquat Aziz presided over the meeting.

The meeting recalled that according to the Sindhi Language Bill 1973 it was made mandatory for non-Sindhi students of class-XI to study compulsory Sindhi subject but this mandatory provision of the bill had been ignored.

The meeting adopted a resolution that if the Sindh governor did not issue directives to chairmen of Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Sukkur and Larkana educational boards by July 16 to rectify the situation, the college teachers would stage a hunger strike outside press clubs on July 18.

The meeting appealed to the president and prime minister, Sindh chief minister, chief secretary, education minister and education secretary to take personal interest in resolving the above issues.