LAHORE, April 15: Punjab Education Minister Mian Imran Masood has claimed that the government has settled issues with the Joint Action Committee and it will stop its campaign soon.

Talking to reporters after the Lahore Board Employees Association office-bearers’ oath-taking at BISE offices on Tuesday, he said the remaining three JAC leaders would also be reinstated after the submission of a report by the Education Commission headed by Justice Ijaz Nisar (retired).

Answering a question, he said that he was considering a proposal to delay intermediate examinations in view of college teachers’ boycott.

“The education department has received applications from students and their parents in this regard,” he said.

Answering another question, he said that it was not in his knowledge that some schools were selling prospectuses and charging Rs100 to Rs200 from students.

He said the education department was also working to regularize the Farogh-i-Taleem Fund and the Red Crescent Fund to ensure that students should not be charged extra money.

When contacted, JAC chairman Nazim Hasnain said the education minister was telling a lie as no agreement had been made. He said the JAC was gearing up its protest campaign and compel the government to accept their demands.

Instead, he said, the education minister had stated during a forum organized by an Urdu daily that “the issue of teachers’ reinstatement was between teachers and the chief minister”.

Mr Hasnain, however, said the JAC leadership was ready to negotiate with the education minister to resolve the matter.

When contacted, JAC co-chairperson Prof Yasmin Rashid said the education minister had never talked to the JAC leadership on the issue. She also said the minister was telling a lie.

JAC sit-in: The Joint Action Committee of teachers, doctors and students on Tuesday organized a mass protest demonstration at the Government Islamia College, Civil Lines, and later staged a sit-in in front of the civil secretariat to pressure the government to accept their demands.

Traffic remained suspended on the Lower Mall for about 45 minutes during their march from the Civil Lines college to the civil secretariat and sit-in in front of the secretariat.

A heavy contingent of police was deployed outside the Civil Lines college and the civil secretariat.

Holding banners and placards, the protesters chanted slogans against the Punjab governor, the takeover of the FC College by the church and the privatization of educational institutions. They said the people had rejected the government policy to increase the cost of education and health facilities in public sector institutions.

JAC chairman Nazim Hasnain, Prof Yasmin Rashid, Zaheeruddin, Hafiz Abdul Khaliq Nadeem, Majid Wazir, Naveed Anwar and others said the government should stop the denationalization of educational institutions, abolish boards of governors constituted in educational and health institutions, stop the implementation of the Model University Ordinance and reinstate the remaining three teachers and a doctor.

Earlier, the JAC organized a protest demonstration at the Civil Lines college.

Speaking on the occasion, JAC leaders said the committee would continue its struggle against government’s anti-education, anti-health and anti-people policies. They said the promotion of education was as important as strengthening the defence of the country.

They said the handing over of the FC College to the church and schools to NGOs would not be accepted by teachers and they would go to any extent to save educational institutions.