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GUJRANWALA, June 13: Schoolteachers who have been staging protest demonstrations for the acceptance of their demands for the last few months have developed internal differences, sources told Dawn on Wednesday.
The teachers were divided into two groups after one group wound up its hunger strike camp till the announcement of the provincial budget on Thursday (today). The other group said it would continue its hunger strike camp till the acceptance of their demands.
Teachers are demanding teaching allowance, timescale promotions, quota in jobs for their children, big city allowance (for teachers with rural backgrounds), restoration of the old examination system and end to ‘interference’ in schools by non-government organisations and monitoring teams.
Punjab SES Teachers’ Association secretary-general Arif Husain Mehar and information secretary Ziaul Mustafa Sulehri said the teachers should wait and see if the government accepted their demands in the budget.
The Punjab Teachers’ Union (PTU), led by district president Qazi Azmatullah, has set up a separate hunger strike camp outside the district naizm’s office. PTU and Muttahida Mahaz Asataza leaders said the teachers should not trust the government’s ‘hollow promises’ and continue their hunger strike camp till the acceptance of their demands.
However, some senior leaders of the Muttahida Mahaz Asataza said they hoped the teachers would not divide, and start a protest movement against the government if their demands were not met in the budget. They appealed to the teachers to unite for their rights.
DEPORTEES HELD: A Federal Investigation Agency team arrested 39 people at the Islamabad airport who were deported from Turkey and brought them to Gujranwala here on Wednesday.
Reports said that the Gujranwala’s FIA (passport cell) team, led by additional director Hussain Asgher and inspector Mian Sabir, had arrested the deportees as soon as they came out from the lounge. The arrested people, who were straightaway driven to Gujranwala, were being interrogated about agents who sent them illegally to Turkey.
The deportees said that hundreds of Pakistani were still in Turkish jails.
DEATH WARRANTS: A condemned prisoner will be hanged here on Thursday (today).
According to the prosecution, convict Zaigham Hussain had killed Sharif over money dispute in 1991 in Kotwali. The death sentence, handed him down by the lower court, has been upheld by the Lahore High Court and the Supreme Court. The president has also rejected his clemency appeal.
RALLY: The district bar association will take out a torch-bearing rally from the district courts at 7pm on Thursday (today) to express solidarity with the Chief Justice of Pakistan.
At a meeting held here on Wednesday, bar president Ilyas Rehan said that lawyers would also boycott court proceedings.
He said that a caravan of lawyers would leave for Faisalabad on June 16 to welcome the CJP and hear his speech there.
