Imran meets 5-member committee representing KP’s disgruntled teachers

F.P. Report

PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chief Imran Khan on Tuesday met a five-member committee of teachers to listen to their reservations regarding upgradation and teaching allowances.

The committee is representing over a thousand disgruntled ad hoc teachers from across the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, protesting outside the Bani Gala residence of the PTI chief.

The teachers are protesting against the appointment of the current board of governors, upgradation, and teaching allowances.

Over 600 ad-hoc KP and FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) teachers are demanding they be made permanent employees after their extended contract ends on October 31.

Earlier negotiations between the protesting ad-hoc teachers and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government failed, following which the teachers had announced to surround the residence of Imran Khan on October 17.

The association rejected the board of governors system being devised by the government for public colleges.

Moreover, the association’s leader, Jamshed Khan, said teachers wanted the government to resolve their issues of professional allowance — provided to school teachers but not college teachers — and their up-gradation.

Last week, Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pervaiz Khattak met with the representatives’ delegation. During the meeting, Khattak said he agreed to take back the decision regarding the formation of a board of governors in colleges.

The chief minister, however, said that the demands regarding professional allowance and up-gradation will put an additional burden on the provincial government’s finances and under the current circumstances that is unacceptable.

The association wanted in writing from the government that their demands will be met; until then, the teachers claim they will continue to boycott classes across the province.