Protesting KMC teachers promised salaries before Eid

Karachi
Hundreds of teachers employed by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation’s (KMC) education department staged a sit-in outside the office of KMC administrator Sajjad Abbasi at the Civic Centre on Monday to protest against not being paid salaries for the past four months.
The teachers staged a sit-in outside the Civic Centre however security guards shut the gates. The employees then marched towards the KMC head office on MA Jinnah Road.
The teachers shouted slogans against the KMC administrator who was not present in his office.
The sit-in outside the Civic Centre continued till Monday afternoon as the teachers demanded that OPS officers be removed from the KMC’s education department. They claimed that the appointment of corrupt officers and ghost teachers who kept drawing salaries but did not show up to work.
They also said the senior director education at KMC, Umer Farooq, had been living abroad for a long time but was still being paid. The teachers demanded an inquiry against the official who, they alleged, had rendered 8,000 teachers without salaries for the past four months. They demanded that Farooq be removed from his post and a new senior education be appointed.
The protesters also claimed that Farooq had threatened the teachers of dire consequences if they revealed anything about the ongoing corruption in the KMC’s education department.
The KMC’s director of human services, Mukhtar Ahmed, assured the protesting teachers that they will be paid before Eid-ul-Azha. The protest was ended on his assurance.
Talking to the media at the KMC head office, Ahmed said there were 7,000 teachers employed by the KMC while 1,200 had been identified as ghost employees and they were inducted between 2007 and 2009. He said salaries to all teachers were stopped because of the ongoing inquiry by the Federal Investigation Agency. Ahmed said a committee had been formed to ascertain whether the employees were actually legal appointees or were ghost teachers.