PESHAWAR, Jan 29: The university teachers held a protest demonstration on Wednesday against the University Model Ordinance and asked the government to refrain from implementing it.

The procession, participated by a large number of teachers, started from the Peshawar University Teachers Association’s (Puta) office. The demonstrators were holding placards, inscribed with slogans against the ordinance. They also raised slogans against the  varsity vice-chancellor for his policies which they termed  anti-teacher, and asked the government to remove him from the post.

There was no class in any university, college or school, as the teachers were busy in demonstration.

On the Jamrud Road the teachers were addressed by the presidents  of the teachers associations of the Engineering University, Agricultural  University, Islamia College and Peshawar University Schools.

Speaking to the teachers, including women, Puta’s chief Arbab Khan Afridi said that the ordinance was aimed at snatching the  right of education from the students at the public educational institutions, and the government was more interested in placating the World Bank and the IMF than caring for the welfare of its people.

He said that the ordinance, if implemented, would place the public educational institutions at the mercy of a few individuals, who, he feared, would convert these into business ventures. 

He also deplored the lukewarm response of the federal and provincial governments towards the protests of the teachers and said that the students’ precious time was being wasted.

He also slammed the vice-chancellor for using police force for suppressing the voice of teachers and the students.

A large number of police had been deployed at the campus to cope  with any untoward situation,
but the teachers dispersed peacefully after the demonstration.