PESHAWAR, Oct 8: Many teachers associations have set up a joint action committee to counter the proposed implementation of the University Model Act and strive for the protection of the educational institutes and the teaching staff.

This was decided at a meeting presided over by Peshawar Teachers Association chief Nasser Ali Khan here on Tuesday.

Siddique Akbar of the engineering university was elected president of the joint action committee, which would devise ways and means to prevent the implementation of the act.

The meeting observed that the act would destroy the fabric of the education system. It feared that under the act the colleges and universities would become business venues, and non-professional and unintelligent people would be given the control of the education affairs.

The participants voiced concern over the government’s plans to implement the act. They claimed that the IMF and World Bank were making policies for the country.

The meeting endorsed the decision of the Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association; All Pakistan Professors, Lecturers Association and associations of schools to boycott the classes every Monday and Thursday after Oct 14.

The meeting urged the government to debate the proposed act in press and at other forums and defer its implementation till the elections so that the new government could settle the matter.

The meeting was attended by the presidents of the Engineering University Teachers Association, Agriculture University Teachers Association, Sarhad College Teachers Association and Islamia College and Collegiate Teachers Association.