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Education News / Students Organisation => Education News => Topic started by: sb on July 04, 2013, 10:45:33 AM
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Two Teachers Attempt self-immolation Over Salary Delay
Karachi:04 July: At least two teachers attempted self-immolation in front of the Sindh Assembly building on Wednesday, while dozens of other people staged a demonstration against non-payment of salaries.
Abu Bakar and Munsib, the teachers who attempted to burn themselves in protest, were shifted to a nearby hospital by their colleagues.
The protest rally started from the Karachi Press Club by the New Appointment Teacher’s Action Committee.
Protestors claimed that for the past 11 months none of the newly appointed teachers in Karachi had received their salaries.
The president of the committee, Abu Bakar Abro, led the protest in which teachers demanded early release of their salaries.
The protesters carried placards and banners and chanted slogans against the Directorate of School Education and other people concerned who were not releasing their salaries.
We fulfil all criteria required for getting this job. We have our appointment letters as proof of our postings to different schools. We also performed election duties. But we are not being paid,” they lamented.
According to the protesters, they were living in poor conditions, but the lawmakers and the education department were not doing anything in this regard.
The police force deployed at the provincial assembly building tried to convince the protesters that their issue would be addressed by the authorities concerned, but the demonstrators refused to listen to the law enforcers and insisted that they wanted to talk to only the chief minister.
They demanded the president, the prime minister and the chief justice of Pakistan to take notice of their issue and provide them immediate relief.
On the other hand, Education Secretary Fazlullah Pechuho said that there were only 1,400 seats available, but the former secretaries had appointed over 9,000 people in the education department. “We shall not accept any influence or political pressure and provide justice on merit,” he added.
The education department had conducted an inquiry and discovered that many people were involved in receiving heavy bribes for hiring more staff.
He said a first information report would soon be lodged against those found guilty of receiving bribes and hiring more people than the actual number of posts available.
According to sources, over 20,000 people were hired against available posts – around 1,400 in number – in teaching and non-teaching cadres across Sindh during the previous government.
They claimed senior officials at the CM House and those around the former minister and secretaries of the education department were involved in this crime.
“Employees in the rest of the province are regularly receiving salaries, but the situation in Karachi is different as they haven’t received a single paisa in the past 11 months or so,” they added.
They said that there was a long list of people involved in the matter and most of them were blue-eyed people of the former education minister.
Sources claimed the Sindh attorney general had shown concern over irregular hirings. They said the hirings were made against vacant and existing posts.
Advertisements were published for teachers, but non-teaching staff were also hired without proper procedure, they added.The news.