By Abdullah Zahid
Police resorted to indiscriminate teargassing and administrative high-handedness as a large number of protesting teachers marched towards the Bani Gala, residence of Prime Minister in Islamabad on Saturday.
As the protesters planned to gather outside the prime minister’s private mansion and reached the Bani Gala Morr, the police sealed the road leading to the premier’s residence in the federal capital and used brute force against the teachers.
They did not even spare the women and tortured them as many of them along with the children, who were accompanying them, fainted.
Meanwhile, the protesters claimed that at least 50 of their colleagues had so far been arrested as the police crackdown was still in progress by the time this report was being filed.
However, the protesting SSE (Secondary School Educators) refused to disperse despite the use of force and staged a sit-in at Bani Gala Morr, with many of them even managing to enter the locality.
As they refused to disperse or hold talks with the administration, a heavy contingent of police was then deputed in the area to control the situation after the initial police action turned into a clash.
Currently, the disgruntled teachers are insisting that they will heed towards Imran’s residence house and continue their protest until their demands are met.
Earlier, the SSE teachers from around Punjab started gathered in the federal capital near Korang Chowk before going ahead with their plan to march towards Bani Gala. They said many of their colleagues had already been arrested in an attempt to stop them from reaching Islamabad.
According to the protesters, they are not being regularised despite passing the NTS (National Testing Service) exam six years ago in 2014. Later, the government passed an interim law under which they are being forced to take another exam under Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC).
They say that they were appointed in 2014 and, therefore, must be regularised under previous rules. “The government wants to remove them from service and thus is using these tactics”, the angry protesters added.
No government functionary has yet held any talks with the protesters.
‘Go ahead, zero pressure’:
“Teachers protesting outside Bani Gala want to be Regularised without passing PPSE which is the LAW,” Murad Raas tweeted.
“I will NOT break the LAW just to appease them. 4 of their members are sitting with us for the last 2 weeks to resolve this,” he said
“If they still want to protest, GO ahead. Zero Pressure,” Muraad added.
