Postponement of elections: Teachers vow to move court against KP cabinet decision

MANSEHRA: The teacher fraternity is going to challenge the postponement of elections of All Teachers Association (ATA) in the court.

"We have been campaigning for the last three months for elections scheduled to be held next month but the government postponed them, which we would not only challenge in a court of law but also launch a protest against it," Waqar Hussain Shah, an aspirant for the office of district president of ATA, told reporters on Sunday.

The teachers from across the district gathered here to decide the future strategy after the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cabinet postponed all teachers' elections in its meeting held in Peshawar on Friday. The provincial government had earlier issued ATA election schedule and fixed September 26 as polling date across the province.

The meeting, which was also attended by all four panels of teachers, decided to come onto the streets besides challenging the provincial cabinet decision in the Peshawar High Court.

"We have decided to turn to the streets against this unjustified decision and the schedule for this agitation would be announced in our meeting to be held today)," said Waqar Hussain. He said elections of the ATA were being held after 25 years, as last elections were held in 1995. The aspirant said that government had also received Rs50,000 as nomination papers fee from aspirants for the provincial body of ATA, Rs20,000 for district and Rs10,000 from candidates of the tehsil body, but now it has reversed the decision without any reason. "The government wants to deprive teachers of their rights and this is why it postponed the election without consulting teachers across the country," he said.