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LAHORE, July 15: Teachers from different schools and colleges on Monday again held a protest meeting at the Islamia College, Civil Lines, and marched from college’s main gate to District Courts chowk to register their protest against government policy to denationalize educational institutions in the province.
Addressing a gathering of teachers, Joint Action Committee chairman Nazim Hasnain said the government was toeing the policies of the IMF and the World Bank and planning to privatize all educational institutions in the province.
He said the government was also converting colleges into universities to constitute boards of governors comprising people from private sector to hand over education to the private sector.
Mr Hasnain said the JAC had decided to hold protest meetings in all districts of the Punjab, including Lahore, on daily basis. He said the committee had also decided to hold protest demonstrations along with protest meetings on every Monday and Thursday in Lahore. He said the next protest meeting and demonstration would be held at Islamia College, Railway Road, on Thursday.
Former Punjab Professors and Lecturers Association president Rana Asghar said the Lahore High Court had given a verdict in 1996 that nationalized schools and colleges could not be denationalized without taking PPLA representatives into confidence.
Teachers’ leaders Rana Arshad, Jan-i-Alam Khan, Arif Iqbal, Noorul Haq, Chaudhry Ameen, Shahida Mushtaq and others also spoke on the occasion.
Later, the teachers staged a peaceful protest demonstration from college’s main gate to District Courts’ chowk. Teachers burnt a copy of the denationalization scheme notification and chanted slogans against the government.
A heavy contingent of police was deployed on both ends of the road. The traffic remained blocked for about half an hour on the road.
SEMINAR: Joint forums of students and teachers’ unions also organized a seminar on “denationalization of educational institutions and its implications” at Hamdard Centre on Monday.
The speakers at the seminar also called for the withdrawal of the denationalization scheme notification.
Former PPLA president Rana Asghar said the decision to denationalize educational institutions had been taken on the World Bank’s 1986 report. He said teachers and students had launched a joint campaign to stop the denationalization process.
Islami Jamiat-i-Talaba Nazim-i-Aala Muhammad Naveed Anwar said the denationalization would close the doors of education to students from middle and poor classes. He said the government should consult teachers, students and their parents rather than the Boston Group to promote the cause of education. He said students from all over the province would join the anti-denationalization campaign.
The seminar participants also passed a resolution that the denationalization would badly affect teachers and students and demanded that the Punjab governor should direct the education department to withdraw the notification.
Punjab Nationalized Teachers Association president Rana Arshad, Punjab University Academic Staff Association vice-president Mehr Saeed Akhtar, PASS, Punjab, president Hafiz Abdul Nasir and others also spoke on the occasion.
