LAHORE: Police arrested on Saturday several protesting owners and teachers of the Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) schools for attempting to reach the Zaman Park residence of Prime Minister Imran Khan to protest non-payment of dues.

The demonstrators started their protest against the Punjab government for non-payment of dues to PEF partner schools outside the Lahore Press Club and marched on the Governor House where heavy police deployment blocked their march. During the process, some protesters were also manhandled by the police while some were also taken into custody.

As the prime minister was in the city, the demonstrators tried to reach Zaman Park to record their protest but extra police contingent was also deployed at Zaman Park and outside the Chief Minister Secretariat along with water cannon to avert any untoward situation and stop the protesters.

Demonstrators wanted to reach PM’s Zaman Park house

The PEF partner schools’ owners and teachers have been protesting against non-payment of six-month dues by the PEF for quite some months.

The owners observed that because of the non-payment, they were unable to pay salaries to teachers and non-teaching staff besides they were also unable to pay buildings’ rents and utility bills, etc.

Earlier, a large number of teachers and owners gathered at Faisal Chowk outside the Punjab Assembly to record their protest on June 9 where a government committee held a dialogue with them and assured them of the release of payments.

Some schools were subsequently paid the arrears by the PEF but several others remained unpaid so far which prompted them to hold the protest demo again.

Punjab Minister for School Education Murad Raas said the government had paid half of the payment and the remaining would be paid after evaluation.

He said they were not releasing a single penny without evaluations of the PEF schools and protesting teachers and owners should take measures for completing the evaluation.

Later, PEF Managing Director Nadeem Sarwar and Capital City Police Officer Zulfiqar Hameed held a meeting with PEF owners and protesters.

Mr Sarwar assured the protesters of taking measures to address their grievances.

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2020