SIALKOT, May 9: More than 50,000 teachers from the Punjab would participate in the march, being organized by the Muttahida Mahaz-i-Asatza, Pakistan, in Islamabad on May 12.

This was stated by Punjab Teachers Union central president Raja Zafeer Ahmad Sitti and information secretary Abdul Rasheed Nagra on Sunday. They told newsmen that teachers from all over Pakistan would march from Aabpara Chowk to Parliament House on May 12.

They said that the PTU would stage a hunger strike camps at Aabpara Chowk in Islamabad on May 13 and 14. They said that the government had been neglecting teachers' demands since long.

They demanded that teachers should be recruited on regular basis. The services of teachers recruited on contract basis should immediately be regularized with 15 per cent increase in their salaries.

They urged the government to immediately withdraw its decision to make union councils' Nazims the chairmen of the schools committees.

Their other demands include increase in teachers' salaries in commensurate with the price hike; immediate revival of teachers' selection grade, promotion on additional qualification, move-over and shelved table of commutations, payment of 60 per cent of current basic salary as house rent, increase in medical allowance, conveyance, headmaster/headmistress allowances besides restoration of recreation and Eid allowances.

The PTU leaders urged the government to allocate 20 per cent quota in professional training institutions for teachers' children and formulate the four-grade policy for all PTC, EST, SST and other elementary school teachers.

The services of graduate English teachers should be regularized and their service rules should be framed. Raja Zafeer Sitti and Abdul Rashid Nagra said that the millions of rupees collected every month from teachers on account of teachers welfare fund and group insurance should immediately be transferred to teachers foundation.

They also demanded that teachers representation in the foundation should be ensured. They demanded payment of full gratuity and pensions to the heirs of deceased teachers. The policy of handing over the educational institutions to the NGOs should be withdrawn.