KARACHI, Sept 15: The Sindh Education Minister, Dr Hamida Khuhro, on Wednesday assured the Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association that after denationalization of St Patrick's and St Joseph's colleges , their teaching staff will have the option to continue working with the new administration or serve at a public college.

Talking to a delegation of the SPLA, which called on her at her office on Wednesday, the minister further assured the SPLA that their genuine problems including promotions from BPS 17 to 18 and issuance of seniority lists would be resolved on priority basis.

"The education department will also pursue the matter of promotions of professors from BPS-18 to 19 and from BPS-19 to 20 with the concerned department ie S&GAD," she assured.

The minister also assured the visiting SPLA delegation that recruitment against all vacant posts in colleges and other educational institutions would soon be finalized on merit to overcome the shortage of teaching staff.

Earlier, SPLA President Prof Riaz Ahsan briefed the minister about their charter of demands and complained of political interference in educational institutions by student wings of various political parties.

"These political organizations through their student wings have occupied rooms in colleges, disturbing the academic atmosphere and threatening the administrations of educational institutions," he added.

He said that the presence of coaching and tuition centres in the city were affecting the educational process. The teachers' leader also asked the minister to bring all educational boards in the province under the government's administrative control as was the practice in Punjab and the NWFP. - PPI