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HYDERABAD, May 15: Government teachers and employees staged a procession on Monday under the aegis of Sindh Employees Alliance (SEA) to protest against a proposed ban on teachers and government employees associations.
The procession marched from the Government Muslim Science College to the press club.
Leaders of the alliance, Professor Liaquat Aziz, Mohammad Rafique Jarwar, Abdul Ghani Kumbhar and Taj Joyo said in their speeches that they would never accept any ban on associations as the move would violate 1973 Constitution and human rights.
The government in a bid to cover up its inefficiency and corrupt practices had decided to impose the ban, they alleged.
They demanded that employment quota for teachers’ children and for childern of the deceased’s be implemented and quota for the children of university teachers, officers and employees be fixed.
They called for uniform policies in all universities of the province and demanded the government put an end to what they called victimisation of teachers and government employees, and repeal the Compulsory Removal from Service Ordinance 2000.
They advised the government to equal salaries and allowances of government employees regardless of their place of posting and raise their emoluments with the hike in prices of essential items.
They urged the government to cancel contracts with all the retired officers serving in universities, educational boards and education department and appoint in-service officers in their place.
The leaders suggested the educational boards should be transferred to education department and the Sindhi Language Act 1972 be enforced in all the public and private sector educational institutions.
Referring to Sindh’s problems, they demanded the government retract plans for constructing dams on Indus, give complete provincial autonomy to the province and acknowledge Sindhis exclusive rights over their natural resources.
SPOKESMAN: Mansoor Qadir Junejo, spokesman for Sindh education minister, criticised all the teachers, who had taken part in the procession and called them anti-Sindh and anti-education.
In a statement issued the same day, he called teachers’ union activities a great hurdle to education, which he said had made it even more necessary to ban unionism.
Making a comparison between private and public teachers, he said the private teachers were imparting quality education at meagre salaries without making any protest while the government teachers who received comparatively high salaries were busy striking.
He said that the government was preparing lists of “ghost teachers” to remove them and appoint others in their place on contract basis.
Mr Junejo said that the government was determined to reopen the schools which had remained closed, but regretted the attitude of government teachers organizations had brought the entire educational system of interior Sindh to a standstill.
