CHAKWAL: Teachers from public sector colleges across the province, demanding pay and service protection, are all set to hold a sit-in in front of the Punjab Assembly next week.

All of the province’s college teachers have been directed by their representative body, the Punjab Professors and Lecturers Association (PPLA) to reach Lahore on March 26. PPPA President Prof Abdul Khaliq Nadeem told Dawn the teachers will continue to protest until their demands are accepted.

College teachers also held protest rallies in every district on the province on Tuesday. In Chakwal, the rally began at the Government Postgraduate College, from where protesters carrying banners and placards moved to the Chakwal Press Club.

At the press club, the office bearers of PPLA’s Chakwal chapter addressed the media. The association’s local president, Prof Sohail Malik, said the government is not paying attention to the teachers’ demands, because of which the rights of thousands of teachers are being denied.

Mr Nadeem told Dawn the association has a five point agenda which they have put before the current government, but no practical action has been taken despite repeated meetings.

“We want similar incentives as given to the college teachers of Khyber Pakhtukhwa by their provincial government,” Mr Nadeem explained.

He said that in Punjab, lecturers recruited in 2002 and 2005 were regularised in 2009, but the last government deducted their previous service as well as their pay.

“Lecturers who were recruited in 2002 and regularised in 2009 have lost seven years service, and those recruited in 2005 were deprived of four years service,” he said, demanding pay and service protection for all college teachers in Punjab.

He said the last government made a policy for the training of college teachers, making it mandatory for promotions, but in the years that have passed the government could not frame a mechanism for training.

“The government could only train 72 teachers in the last two years, and in this period more than 300 college teachers have retired without being promoted just because of the training condition. More than 400 are about to retire,” Mr Nadeem said.

He added: “We are ready for trainings, but if the government cannot arrange training it is not our fault. Why should our promotions be the victim of the government’s apathy and incompetence?”

When contacted, Punjab Minister for Higher Education and Tourism Raja Yasir Humayun Sarfraz said he was doing his best to resolve college teachers’ issues.

“Their demands are just and we would accept them,” he said, adding that funds would be allocated for an academy to train college teachers in the upcoming annual development programme.

He also promised that arrangements would be made soon for teachers’ pay and service protection, adding: “I hope we chalk out a solution before the commencement of the proposed sit-in.”

Published in Dawn, March 21st, 2019