College teachers in KP threaten protest

PESHAWAR: College teachers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have announced to launch a protest drive across the province from next week on expiry of the deadline they had set for the government for implementation of the five-tier promotion policy.

The announcement was made on Wednesday. The teachers of government colleges and commerce colleges had set March 12 as deadline for the government to accept their demand. However, the government remained unmoved, forcing the teaching fraternity to go ahead with the protest drive, said Abdul Hameed Afridi, president Khyber Pakhunkhwa Professor and Lecturers Association.

The protest campaign would be started from Swat and it would be gradually extended to other districts. An emergency meeting would be held on Monday next wherein formal strategy for the protest campaign would be worked out.

The meeting besides Abdul Hameed Afridi would be attended by KP Commerce Teachers Association’s President Syed Imtiaz Ali, general secretaries of the two association Zafar Iqbal and Waheed Khattak and other members of the executive bodies of the associations.

The teacher representatives blasted the government for what they referred to as its indifferent attitude. They said that the government has been unable to implement its own decision and thus the college teachers were being deprived of their genuine rights.

They said that the repeated demands of the teaching fraternity have been falling on deaf ears of those at the helm of affairs. It was the indifferent attitude of the government that left the teachers with no other choice but to take to the streets.

They threatened to go to any extent for getting their demands accepted. They said the government would be responsible for the wastage of the students’ time and any other untoward happening if occurred during the protest drive.