LAHORE, Dec 9: The Punjab chief secretary has invited the Joint Action Committee representing teachers, doctors and students on Tuesday (today) to discuss its demands.

JAC chairman Nazim Hasnain told a news conference here on Monday that Executive District Officer (education) Chaudhry Asghar had extended him the chief secretary’s invitation.

“We will see the chief secretary at his office at 11:30am and present our demands regarding withdrawal of boards of governors from educational institutions and hospitals, Model University Ordinance and reinstatement of sacked teachers and doctors. We will not compromise on any demand,” Mr Hasnain said.

He said if the chief secretary failed to meet their demands, the JAC would not cancel its sit-in outside the Punjab Assembly on Wednesday.

He said on Nov 27 they had called off their march from the Girls College on Cooper Road to the assembly chambers on the assurance of the chief minister.

“If Tuesday’s meeting with the chief secretary fails, the JAC would put more vigour in its protest campaign and students of all colleges across the province would boycott the classes and stage sit-ins outside their colleges as well,” he said.

Mr Hasnain said political leaders, including Qasim Zia, Qazi Husain Ahmad, Saad Rafiq, Allama Mashriqi, Liaquat Baloch, Farid Paracha, Fakhar Zaman, Aitzaz Ahsan, Naveed Anwar, Rana Arshad, Farooq Tariq, Lahore High Court Bar Association general secretary Shahid Mahmood and other leaders would present themselves for arrest along with the JAC leadership on Wednesday.

He said the JAC was also planning to hold a sit-in outside the National Assembly following the convening of its next session.

JAC spokesman Raja Mahboob told Dawn that the government made a preliminary committee comprising health, education and chief secretaries which would give report to the chief minister about the outcome of their discussion with the JAC.

He said the chief minister was expected to take decision in the light of the committee’s report.

He said the JAC considered the meeting a planned move to cool down their campaign against the formation of BoGs, MUO and victimization of their leaders.

Dr Yasmin Rashid, Azam Butt, Muhammad Tariq and Rana Liaquat were also present at the press conference.

According to a handout, Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi told a meeting which constituted a committee to interact with the doctors and teachers to resolve their problems that promotion of education was imperative for socio-economic progress of the country.

Social unevenness could not be removed from society without raising literacy rate, he observed.

Mr Elahi directed the education authorities to chalk out a comprehensive plan for enhancing standard of education, increasing literacy rate and providing better training facilities to the teachers.

He stressed the need for launching training programmes for teachers saying the exercise would enable them in producing outstanding students in the institutions.

The chief minister directed to ensure the objectives of autonomy of the educational institutes were achieved.