SWABI, March 14: At least 596 teachers of different cadres who had been appointed about 16 months back in the education department on contract basis have demanded regularisation of their service.

They said on Tuesday that they were the first people who had been appointed by the education department on contract basis as prior to this no such example had ever taken place.

They said on the one side the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal government had declared that those who had been appointed on contract basis would enjoy all facilities which extended to the regularisation of employees but on the other refused to regularise them.

They said that about two years back some PTC teachers had been promoted to CT teacher posts and they had been told that they would work in grade 9 instead of grade 14.

They said that later on the same teachers were promoted to grade 14 by the MMA government because some near and dear ones were among them.

They demanded that the same pattern should be applied in their case and their services should be made permanent.

They said once their services were regularised then they would give up their plan to join some other department as regular employees but if the government kept sticking to its contract policy then each of them would struggle to get a permanent job somewhere else.

They criticised the government’s double standards and said those who came from government departments were told that their service was permanent and only fresh teachers were appointed on temporary basis.