Keamari district’s unpaid teachers to protest on Eid day

Despite the Sindh government's announcement of April 12, the teachers employed at the District Keamari Education Department have not been paid their June and July salaries even as the Eid-ul-Azha festival draws nearer, and the irate teachers have decided to approach the Human Rights Cell of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and the Sindh High Court to get their pay.

According to the provincial order, more than 700 teachers working in 89 schools of Keamari and Baldia Town, which are under the administration of the District Keamari Education Department, were supposed to get an advance salary before the Eid, but teachers say they have not been paid for the past two months.

They think it is unfair to withhold the salaries of the teachers on the pretext of some ghost teachers. They have registered complaints with the secretary of the Local Government Department and other officers, but to no avail.

According to a notification issued by the government on April 12, Iqbal Imtiaz Phulpoto, a Grade 18 officer working as director tax in the DMC Keamari, was appointed acting municipal commissioner as per an order of the Supreme Court.

Junior officers cannot be posted on an OPS basis, while municipal commissioners are still receiving their salaries from the West district.

In this regard, the teachers of Keamari had staged a protest on July 7, after which a protest is being planned again on the Eid. Teachers say that if their salaries are not released, they will demonstrate protest during the Eid festival. “We have been teaching students during the Covid-19 pandemic and also guided them via online teaching activities,” says a teacher, adding that the provincial government is not serious about releasing the salaries of the teachers.

Muzammil Shah, convener of the All Sindh Local Government Education Employees Association, and Syed Zulfiqar Shah, central chairman of the All Pakistan Local Government Workers Federation, have said that teachers and non-teaching staffers of the Keamari Education Department will stage a protest on Eid-ul-Azha for their salaries of June and July.

Expressing concerns, they have said that the salaries of teachers should be paid on time as teachers and nonteaching staffers are in dire need of money on the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha.