LARKANA: The Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association (SPLA) has slammed the provincial government’s “dilly-dallying” on granting time scale and teaching allowance to college teachers and teaching staff and announced a march on Chief Minister House on Nov 6 to press for the demands.

Members of the association’s coordination committee Prof Abdul Jabbar Junejo, Prof Manzoor Kalhoro, Prof Jam Jamali and others said at a press conference at the Larkana Press Club on Saturday that the march towards CM House would start from Karachi Press Club.

They said that a summery detailing their demands had been prepared and moved to CM House on Dec 22, 2010, where it had been gathering dust for the past eight years waiting only for the chief executive’s approval to grant time scale and allowance to 8,000 college teachers.

The total seats of college teachers numbered 11,000 but presently 8,000 teachers were working in different institutions while 3,000 seats had been lying vacant for years, they said.

The summary was moved in the wake of successful talks between SPLA’s representatives and the then chief secretary on Nov 11, 2010, wherein it was agreed that time scale and teaching allowances would be granted to college teachers on the pattern of Balochistan government’s policy and decision, they said.

In 2010, they said, thousands of their colleagues in primary and secondary schools had been given their due right of time scale and teaching facilities, thereby permanently resolving the issue of their promotions and salaries.

They said that perhaps the college teachers were left in the lurch because, like others, they had not chosen to take to the streets. The existing service structure was completely outdated which resulted in retirement of around 250 college teachers only with one-step promotion from 17 to 18 grade over their 30 years of service.

In contrast, the secondary and higher secondary school teachers attained to 20th grade over the same period. This treatment and injustice had generated a wave of resentment and sense of deprivation among college teachers and teaching staff, they said. “We had protested at the mausoleum of Benazir Bhutto in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh to draw Sindh government’s attention towards this stark injustice but in vain,” they said.

In September, two senior professors Jam Jamali and Mohammad Ali Pathan met Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari in Naudero and apprised him of the plight of college teachers and the “indifferent” attitude of the Sindh government, they said.

But, they said, unfortunately no action followed the meeting in spite of PPP chairman’s word about resolving their issue.

Prof Ali Raza Gaad, Prof Sheraz Ahmed Soomro, Prof Gada Hussain Brohi, Prof Nizamuddin Abbasi and others were also present at the press conference.

Published in Dawn, October 27th, 2019