LAHORE: Academic activities in all public schools and colleges resumed after 13 days on Monday as All Government Employees Grand Alliance (AGEGA) ended its boycott on the guarantee of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) vice president Maryam Nawaz.

The alliance, a coalition of 34 organisations representing various government departments, including health, education and higher education, had been protesting against the provincial government since Oct 3 to demand restoration of leave encashment, reversal of amendments to pension regulations and cancellation of privatisation plan for public schools.

However, the caretaker government had launched a crackdown on the protesters and registered cases against 114 members of AGEGA and also arrested 250 of them on Oct 6.

The AGEGA leadership had announced a boycott of academic activities in all the schools and colleges of the province and demanded to first release the teachers and other members.

Agega office-bearer claims Maryam promised to resolve issues

Meanwhile, a magistrate had discharged the case and directed the police to release the protesters but the teachers were again shifted to Kot Lakhpat Jail under 3 MPO.

One of the office-bearers of the alliance told Dawn that military officials along with the government authorities visited them in the jail to hold negotiations.

He said the visitors had accepted all their demands and implemented two of them on the spot including releasing all the AGEGA members and discharging cases and also cancelling schools privatisation.

He said they had asked for guarantees for implementation of their two other demands including reversal of leave encashment notification and amendments to pension regulations.

He said the army officials had taken them to PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz who had assured them on behalf of the caretaker government that all of their demands would be completely implemented.

AGEGA Chief Coordinator Rehman Ali Bajwa, Punjab Teachers Union President Bashir Warraich, APCA President Zafar Ali Khan and Punjab Professors and Lecturers Association (PPLA) President Dr Tariq Ali were present in the meeting with Maryam Nawaz.

The AGEGA thanked Maryam Nawaz for her intervention and expressed the hope that their remaining demands would be fulfilled soon.

The resumption of academic activities brought about relief to thousands of students and parents who were worried over the loss of precious study time.

Meanwhile, caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi [earlier] also said that the government was not going to privatise the public schools of the province.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2023