Punjab teachers' protest | Okara cadet college

Teachers stage sit-in at PA for higher salaries
Lahore, May 08: Teachers and professors of the city staged a sit-in outside the Punjab Assembly (PA) on Thursday to protest against the government for not coming to terms with their demands.

The Punjab Professors and Lecturers Association (PPLA) organised the protest with the participation of college teachers, contractual lecturers, and professors. They condemned the government for repeatedly ignoring the demands of the teachers.

Protest: The PPLA rally was taken out from MAO College. After passing through The Mall, protesters gathered outside the PA to stage a sit-in. The protest disrupted the flow of traffic for over three hours on The Mall and its adjacent roads forcing commuters to wait for hours in the scorching heat. Poor planning by the City Traffic Police (CTP) led to a chaotic situation on The Mall and despite the presence of heavy contingents of police, the flow of traffic remained at a standstill.

The teachers were carrying placards and chanting anti-government slogans, saying they were being discriminated against after their salaries were not raised despite a 100 percent increase in the salaries of police officials.

PPLA President Nazim Hasnain Shah demanded the government give the teachers their right of gratuity. He said the government had regularised the contractual employees of the Health Department but the Education Department was still being ignored. He said the system of contractual employees should be abolished once and for all.

Education ignored: Shah said the government had allocated millions of rupees to provide cheap roti to the people, adding that it had still not granted the teachers their due rights. He said it demonstrated the government's 'commitment' to improving the education sector. He said the government had not even appointed an education minister.

The protesters refused to talk to District Coordination Officer (DCO) Sajjad Ahmed Bhutta on his arrival. However, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Member of National Assembly (MNA) Naseer Bhutta vowed to arrange a meeting between representatives of the teachers and Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif. Trusting his word, the protesters dispersed peacefully.

Teachers' demands
*Regularisation of contractual employees
*Amendments in the low salary structure
*No delay in promotions
*Right of earned leaves when pursuing higher education
*Facility of leave to go abroad
*Facility of transfer. Daily Times

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Okara cadet college
Development without planning has acquired the status of a necessary evil in Pakistan. People cannot wait for the delivery of basic services like health and education before our fractured national polity is able to arrive at a consensus on what kind of development we need and how best we should pursue it. The haphazard development that results from this approach sometimes creates white elephants that people love to have but are loathe to bankroll. A proposed cadet college in Okara seems to have become just that - a fancy project no one seems ready to fend for. First proposed in 1986 and more than half built on 200 acres of land just outside Okara, the project is nowhere close to becoming a cadet college any time soon. In fact, the Punjab government has already notified that it will set up a 'Danish' school in the building once it is complete. Residents of the area are unhappy as are some prominent local politicians like federal minister Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo and former federal minister Rao Sikandar Iqbal, both having championed the setting up of the college during earlier stints in power. The Punjab government's refusal to let them have it stems from the fact that running the cadet college will cost as much as operating 1,000 middle schools. The project is too costly for the provincial education department to let it go ahead, goes the argument inside the Punjab Civil Secretariat.

Okara's people are hardly convinced. They believe setting up a 'Danish' school in a building that has already cost the federal government a whopping Rs200m is akin to constructing a zoo to house a sparrow. They are also not sure if the 'Danish' school - part of an official scheme to give free education to the children of the dispossessed - will be half as good as a cadet college could be in imparting quality education. Between the government's financial worries and the public's demand for quality education, the project may end up being nothing - neither a cadet college nor a 'Danish' school. This will be a costly reminder of how development without planning can degenerate into development without purpose. Dawn

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Exam impersonation of a former PML-N MNA
LAHORE: Lahore High Court Chief Justice Khwaja Muhammad Sharif has taken a suo motu notice of granting bail to the nephew of a former PML-N MNA, who was accused of impersonating his uncle.

Haji Pervez Khan had resigned recently from his National Assembly seat, which he had won on the PML-N ticket after an inquiry committee found him guilty. The LHC chief justice issued a show-cause notice to Bilal Javed, asking him why the bail granted to him by a magistrate should not be revoked.

The chief justice remarked: "From the FIR, it prima facie appears that the provisions of Section 419 PPC apply to the case, which provide punishment of up to seven years." The chief justice directed the Punjab advocate general to ensure compliance of the notice and appear in the court for assistance on Friday (today).

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Punjab University wins debates
Islamabad: Dialogue and tolerance are the best tools to bring change in society and there is a need to drop the sword and pick up these tools, said Federal minister for Education Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani here on Thursday.

He was addressing the 12th All Pakistan Debate Contest award distribution ceremony. The University of the Punjab, Lahore, won shields for both English and Urdu debates in the competition.

Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Social Sector and In-Charge HEC Shahnaz Wazir Ali, Executive Director HEC Dr Sohail Naqvi and a large number of students and teachers attended the ceremony.

The minister said the society which lefts the dialogue and starts fighting with each other then it is dead. Debates, discourse and respect are the best ways to bring positive change in the society instead of picking sword.

"Debates help in polishing skills of critical thinking and better understanding of social, cultural and economic issues. Activities like Allama Iqbal debating contest are innovative and I would recommend arranging more programmes like this so that our youth could get the benefit of it and express themselves," he said. He advised students to take full advantage of educational opportunities that their institutions are offering.

"Our obligation to this country calls for overriding self interests in favour of national cause and for common good. We need a broader viewpoint that transcends the boundaries of regional, sectarian and ethnic distinctions," he stressed.

Shahnaz Wazir Ali, while addressing students, said that debate is a difficult test for one's competence. "By reaching in the final round of the inter-university competition you have proved your skills," she said.

"Debates teach us to be expressive besides being tolerant to other's point of view," she added. "We must learn to be tolerant and listen to each other, which is the basic spirit for organizing such contests," she concluded.

In individual contest Shamaoon Ahmad of University of the Punjab, Lahore; Faisal Mahmood, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad; and Rafique Ahmed Brohi from University of Sindh won the first, second and third prizes in the English debate respectively. While Syed Shafaat Ali CECOS University of IT and Emerging Sciences, Peshawar; Haider Mairaj, National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences, Islamabad; and Syed Farhan Ali Zaidi from University of Sindh, Jamshoro; won the first, second and third prizes in Urdu debate respectively.

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IJT launches movement against military action
Lahore: Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT) on Thursday launching a movement against military operations in Balochistan and NWFP and US drone attacks inside Pakistan and organised various events to express solidarity with the fellow brethren.

IJT Lahore organised a rally while the Punjab University chapter IJT organised a demonstration outside PU Old Campus on The Mall as part of Solidarity Day to express harmony with the people of Balochistan and NWFP.

The rally started from Government College of Science Wahdat Road and culminated at Paikhaiwaal Mor near PU New Campus in which participants, carrying banners and placards, criticized the US drone attacks inside Pakistan and military operations in Balochistan and NWFP.

Terming the military operation intolerable, the students demanded the government end military operations in two of the provinces on immediate basis. The protesting students further said the government instead of establishing cantonments at different areas of Balochistan and NWFP should set up educational institutions there. They also demanded the government get register an FIR against former president Pervaiz Musharraf for killing of Baloch leader late Akbar Bugti.

IJT Lahore nazim, addressing the rally participants, said peace and stability could be ensured in Pakistan only if US left our country. He said action had never proved solution to any problem, adding leaders were proving themselves to be puppet by launching operations against their own people.

Separately, the demo participants at The Mall also criticized the ongoing military operations and demanded the government adopt the course of dialogue. Chanting anti-US slogans, dozens of students participated in the demo and expressed solidarity with people of Balochistan and NWFP.

They said India, Israel and US wanted to make sure the world that Pakistan was a failed state, adding the enemies of the country were in fact eyeing the country's atomic power. The News

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Lahore High Court orders appointment of 46 prosecutors who passed PPSC exam
Lahore: A full bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday directed the provincial government to appoint 46 prosecutors who passed the qualification examination taken by the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC). The bench comprising Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, Justice Umar Ata Bandial and Justice Hafiz Tariq Nasim also directed the termination of first batch of those prosecutors who were appointed on contract basis. The bench issued these directions while hearing hundreds of identical petitions against dismissal of prosecutors. The petitioners, Sarfraz Ahmed and others, had challenged their removal order and asked the court to stay its implementation. The petitioners said they were appointed between June 2006 and September 2007 under the Contract Appointment Policy, 2004. They said there was a criterion to remove them from service, but the government had sacked them after they had failed in interviews conducted by a selection committee months after their appointment. The officers claimed that they had passed interviews before being appointed and requested the court to declare the sacking orders illegal. The Punjab government, in reply to the petitions, informed the court that 488 ad hoc prosecutors, recruited by the previous government, had failed to pass the department examination and were terminated.

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School ordered to refund fee to FSc student
Lahore: The Lahore Consumer Court on Thursday ordered a school in Shadman to refund dues of an FSc (pre-engineering) student who could not complete her education due to the institution's deficiencies.

The judge passed this order on a petition of Faryal Sahar, who moved the court through her father Liaqat Ali. She submitted that she secured admission in 1st year on August 20, 2008 and deposited Rs 38,700 as admission fee. She said only four or five students were studying in the course.

Sahar said the school had projected minimum of 40 students for the 1st year class. Her father submitted his daughter requested the school administration to cancel her admission so that she could secure admission in another institution. He said the school refunded only Rs 8,600 instead of Rs 38,700. The counsel for the school contended Rs 8,600 was the security, which was refundable. He said no minimum number of students had been fixed.

After hearing the arguments, the judge ruled in favour of the complainant. He directed the school to refund Rs 26,600 within 10 days. He also directed it to pay Rs 5,000 as cost of the case. Daily Times

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