LOWER DIR: Hundreds of young teachers on Tuesday took to the streets in different districts against the abolition of their pensions and ad hoc recruitment in the education department.

The teachers gathered outside the Timergara Press Club in Lower Dir and chanted slogans against the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government.

The protesters threatened to stage a sit-in outside the Chief Minister’s House in DI Khan if their demands were not accepted by Aug 11. They also threatened to stage a sit-in outside the Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi, on August 19 if the chief minister didn’t address their grievances.

Party’s founding chairman Imran Khan is imprisoned in Adiala Jail.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Young Teachers’ Association (YTA) provincial president Attaur Rehman, district president Mohammad Tufail, general secretary Mohammad Jamal Shah, tehsil president Zakir Khan and others addressed the rally.

Seek meeting with CM on matter

They said YTA would resist the illegal abolishment of pension and inclusion of 34,000 teachers in the contributory pension (CP) fund.

“It is unjust and illegal to deprive the teachers having completed less than nine years and six months of service of their pensions and put them into the CP fund,” Attaur Rehman said, adding the chief minister should hold an urgent meeting with the YTA leadership on the matter.

Mr Rehman said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Teachers Regularisation Act, 2022 did away with the CP fund, and regularised all the teachers from the date of their appointment.

However, he alleged the caretaker government issued a notification on August 15, 2023, stating all the teachers recruited under the Act after March 8, 2017 had been included in the CP fund. He said the AG office order was against the law.

He said the finance department had not removed that ‘illegal’ circular of the AG office despite the secretary education had sent letters to the secretary finance on Dec 28, 2023, and on Jan 19, 2024.

In Mohmand, the local chapters of all teachers’ association and YTA demonstrated outside the press club in Ghalanai to protest the abolition of pension.

Addressing the protesters, ATA president Marjan Ali Mohmand and YTA general secretary Gohar Rahman said the last PTI government had regularised the teachers recruited before June 2022 and entitled them to General Provident (GP) fund and pension.

They said a teachers’ delegation would meet Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur in his Dera home town to put up their issues with him.

In Swat, a large number of young teachers staged a demonstration for being excluded from the Teachers’ Regularisation Act, 2022.

They gathered in front of the Swat Press Club, holding banners and chanting slogans in favour of their demands.

Led by YTA Swat president Nawab Farid and all the tehsil presidents, the protesters said that ‘illegal’ termination of pensions for 34,000 teachers recruited before June 7, 2022 and their inclusion in the CP fund was not acceptable to them.

They said the illegal notifications of AG office and the special secretary finance should be scrapped immediately, adding due to the negligence of the district education officers, about 10,000 teachers were left out of the Teachers’ Regularisation Act, 2022 and not regularised to date.

They also demanded halting the ad hoc recruitments in the education department. They said illegal deductions of CP fund, GP fund, Benevolent Fund, and RBDC fund should be stopped for employees, who retired after June 7, 2022.

They said it was illegal to terminate the pensions of employees whose service was less than nine years and six months, and who were already pensionable employees into the CP fund.

They said the chief minister was requested to hold an urgent meeting with the YTA leadership to solve their problems.

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2024