KOHAT: Over 1,000 school teachers in the Frontier Region (FR) of Kohat are on partial strike for the last 15 days in protest against what they say the absence of any policy for upgradation of teachers working in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

The strike has been affecting the studies at the educational institutions in the FR where education has always fared low on priority list of the government.

FR Teachers Association president Shafarish Khan told a press conference here at the press club that the federal government had not been implementing the promotion policy in the tribal areas, saying it would cost the exchequer Rs4 billion. He said that the tribal people had suffered a lot due to terrorism and they and their children had also been affected.

Mr Khan said that the FR teachers did not know whether they were working under the provincial government or the federal government, adding that if this confusion was removed their problems would be automatically resolved.

He claimed that the federal government was flatly refusing basic rights to the people of Fata. He said that the federal government, which had devised no development and education policy for Fata as yet, should borrow it from the provincial government.

The association president said that the holidays were applicable as those in the province and salary of the teaching staff was also the same though the salary of federal employees was a bit higher under the law.

He said that the special risk, harsh weather and difficult terrain allowances should to be given to the tribal teachers as admissible under the circumstances. He demanded grade-12 for PTC teachers and grade-15 for middle school teachers. He said that one-third of the quota should be reserved for promotions through internal mechanism in addition to five-yearly and 10-yearly raise in the grades.

ARTISTS: The senior artists of Kohat have criticised the organisers of ‘Ya Qurban’ Tapay competition, saying they ignored local talent and brought singers and judges from Peshawar for the programme.

Master Raheem told a press conference said that the basic aim of the PTI cultural ministry was to encourage local artists for which the programme was arranged few days ago.

He said that the criteria of being amateur and not more than 25 years of age for the participants was violated. The judges from Peshawar also brought with them singers, who had been in the fields for more than 15 to 20 years and then first and second prizes were given to them, he said. He added that it was injustice with the local singers.

Flanked by Ibrar Alam, Aslam Qureshi, Khan Zaman, Azam Khan, Abdul Qayyum Shad, Atiq Shah, Shafique Nigar and Qadir Pehalwan, Mr Raheem said that it was beyond understanding as to why judges and singers came from Peshawar when senior professional artists were present locally and the programme was also confined to only Kohat district.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2015