Daily-wage teachers plan protest outside PM house

Islamabad : Seeing their prolonged peaceful protest fail to deliver the goods, scores of frustrated daily-wage teachers of Islamabad’s public sector educational institutions have warned they will demonstrate outside the prime minister’s personal house near Rana Market to claim the payment of withheld salary and regularisation of services.

After his election to the prime minister’s office in August last year, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s F-7/2 house was declared the Prime Minister’s House with law-enforcement and security personnel deployed in the surroundings.

Now as the premier leaves this house for office every morning, the daily wagers have planned to draw his attention towards their misery by staging a protest outside it.

Both men and women, they’ve camped outside the National Press Club for more than seven weeks boycotting classes and exams in their schools. They even tried to block the way of former premier Nawaz Sharif's motorcade outside the Federal Judicial Complex here.

However, the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD), which oversees the local public sector educational institutions, has yet to do something tangible to meet their demands.

When contacted, Ihsan Sikandari of the Young Teachers Association, which represents these daily wagers, confirmed the plans to protest outside the premier’s house in F-7/2. “We (daily-wage teachers) will demonstrate outside the prime minister’s private house on next Monday and will stay put until our genuine demands are met,” he said.

A CADD official insisted that after scrutiny of their particulars, posts would be created to adjust daily-wage teachers.

He said efforts were under way to ensure the early payment of withheld salary to those temps.

Meanwhile, the schoolchildren complain the teachers’s strike has adversely impacted on their studies, especially when the examinations are either underway or at hand. They demanded the authorities to resolve the issue without delay to their relief.