KARACHI, Sept 29: The Sindh government on Monday withdrew the notification under which the control of two prominent colleges of the city — Raana Liaquat Ali Khan College of Home Economics and Khatoon-i-Pakistan College — was given to a non-governmental organisation, provincial secretary of education Rizwan Memon told Dawn.

The notification issued on Sept 23 had sparked a widespread protest in both the colleges in particular, and other government colleges in general, as the teaching community of the city strongly opposed the government’s decision to hand over the management of these colleges to Zindagi Trust, saying that it was the state’s responsibility to help provide education to the citizens.

A strike was observed in government colleges of the city on Monday to put pressure on the government to withdraw the notification.

The Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association (SPLA) had given the strike call.

Earlier, a protest meeting of the Karachi chapter of the SPLA held at DJ Govt Science College on Monday with Prof Ather Hussain Mirza in the chair was largely attended by teachers of Raana Liaquat Ali Khan College of Home Economics, Khatoon-i-Pakistan College and SMB Fatima Govt College.

It was during the meeting that a prominent leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Syed Sardar Ahmed, rang up the SPLA’s office-bearers to inform them that the Sindh government, on the advice of MQM chief Altaf Hussain, had withdrawn the notification whereby the control of both the colleges and the Khatoon-i-Pakistan School had been given to the NGO.

The participants of the meeting greeted the news with great joy.

Speaking on the occasion, SPLA’s office-bearers, including Prof Iftikhar Mohammad Azmi, Prof Muzaffar Rizvi and Prof Asif Zaidi, lauded the MQM leadership, teachers, students and parents for extending their full support to the SPLA’s movement.

Reiterating that the SPLA would continue its movement till the acceptance of its other demands, they urged the government to take back the control of SMB Fatima College and other colleges and schools whose management had earlier been handed over to NGOs.

Accusing the provincial director-general (colleges) of creating more shortages of teachers in colleges by transferring them from one college to anoter, instead of appointing more teachers, they demanded of the government to remove him.

Later, they thanked the teachers of all government colleges for observing a “complete strike” on Monday.

Meanwhile, the SPLA has convened its high-powered committee’s meeting on Oct 16 at DJ Science College to chalk out its future line of action.