• DIG says 38 detained during operation released
• Teachers’ body sets up protest camp outside KPC

KARACHI: Police briefly detained over three dozen people and used tear gas and batons to stop protesting primary schoolteachers from marching on the Chief Minister House on Wednesday.

Hundreds of teachers, who gathered outside the Karachi Press Club on the call of the All Sindh Primary Teachers Association, staged a rally towards CM House in a bid to present their demands that pertained to the service structure and delegation of transfer-and-posting powers to district officers.

Chanting slogans, the rally participants reached near Fawara Chowk, where a heavy contingent of police tried to stop them from marching any further.

When they did not stop, the law enforcers baton-charged them and used tear gas shells to push them back towards the press club.

South DIG Syed Asad Raza told Dawn that prior to the protest, the administration made concerted efforts to resolve the matter through negotiations and engaged officials from the education department to facilitate meaningful dialogue.

He said the protesters were categorically told that entry into the Red Zone would not be permitted.

He said that around 3:15pm, the protesters turned “violent, abandoned the course of negotiations and forcibly started advancing towards the CM House”.

He claimed that the protesting teachers “breached police barricades and pelted police personnel with stones, causing injuries to one official”.

“Upon reaching and crossing Kabir Masjid on Governor House Road, the situation escalated, compelling police to resort to [tear gas] shelling to disperse the violent mob and restore order,” said the DIG.

He said during the operation, 38 protesters, including the president of the All Sindh Primary Teachers Association, Ghulam Rasool Mahar, and the general secretary, Aijaz Ali Chandio, were taken into custody.

However, they were all released later in the evening, the DIG added.

Meanwhile, Rafiq Nizamani, the vice president of the teachers’ association, told Dawn that in 2021, the Sindh government had chalked out an “education policy” under which it was decided that teachers would not be promoted and they would remain in the same pay scale.

He said they launched a protest against this “arbitrary” decision as others were being promoted, but not them.

He said that at the time, the government had assured them that their demands would be addressed, but this did not happen.

He said apart from the service structure, they wanted recruitment and the transfer/posting of teachers to be delegated to district officials.

Published in Dawn, November 5th, 2026