KARACHI, Sept 1: A division bench of the Sindh High Court admitted to regular hearing on Friday a writ petition challenging the ban imposed on unions and associations of professors, lecturers and teachers and issued notices to the advocate-general and the provincial education secretary for Sept 14.

The Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association submitted through Advocate Akhtar Hussain that the impugned notification of July 21, 2006, which threatened action under the Removal from Service (Special Powers) Ordinance for violation of the ban, was repugnant to Articles 14, 15, 16, 17, 19 and 25 of the Constitution, which guaranteed the fundamental rights of its members to dignity, freedom of expression, assembly and association and of equality before law.

The petition said the teachers’ associations at various levels had been struggling for better academic environments and for ensuring socio-economic rights of their members and had not indulged in any unlawful activity.

The petitioner association protested when irregular appointments were made to colleges and the chief minister had to order two high-level inquiries. It also pointed out heavy losses caused to the public exchequer by ill-advised policies of the education department, in respect particularly of the Sindh Text Book Board.

It said that the working conditions of the teaching staff had worsened in Sindh, that no other province had imposed a ban on teachers’ associations and that no such ban had been imposed on other professional organizations in the province.