Several schoolteachers detained for bid to march towards red zone

Several teachers were detained as police used tear gas shells and water cannons when protesting teachers attempted to march towards the security red zone from Karachi Press Club (KPC) on Monday.

Police also baton-charged the teachers after a clash erupted between the protesters and the authorities when the demonstrators tried to move towards the Chief Minister House and the Governor House.

Shortly after the violence started, the police effectively blocked the protesters’ way, and the use of batons, tear gas and water cannons left many teachers wounded. The police then took some 50 teachers into custody and took them to different police stations. No case had been registered nor had the detained teachers been released till the filing of this news story.

The Primary Teachers Association Sindh held a protest in front of the Karachi Press Club and demanded of the Sindh government to regularise the primary school teachers, who had passed the recruitment test under the supervision of the Sindh University in 2010 and the National Testing Services test in 2014.

According to association former president Shafi Mohammad Sathio, around 6,000 teachers had qualified the test held at the Sindh University and more than 8,000 teachers had passed the NTS test.

They were later appointed at different primary schools cross Sindh. The Sindh Assembly had passed a bill to regularise these teachers in 2012, but the provincial government forgot to regularise them till 2017.

“In 2017, we organised the protest and CM Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah through his representative had assured us that the all the teachers would be regularised through an official procedure. However, no tangible actions have been observed so far.”

The government also constituted a scrutiny committee headed by Special Secretary Education Ghulam Abbas Detho, but he was removed from the position and the committee remained almost dysfunctional. Thus, teachers are still demanding regularisation.

He said that the primary teachers from across the province had decided to come out onto the roads and struggle for their due rights. But on Monday, police baton-charged them, arrested around 200 teachers, and some of them were still in the police custody, he added. He announced that the teachers would continue their protest until the government met their demands.