Pakistan: KP teachers protest outside Imran Khan's house

Government teachers from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) staged a sit-in outside Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan's home in Islamabad's Bani Gala area for regularisation of their jobs.

The protest took place just before when Imran Khan was scheduled to address his party's protest against the current government, reported The Frontier Post.

The teachers, who were recruited four years ago on an ad hoc basis, were demanding regularization and other benefits. They arrived in the capital to protest near Khan's residence.

Asked why they were not protesting in KP, the teachers claimed they feared the heavy-handedness of the KP police working under the provincial PTI government.

The protesting teachers wanted to communicate their demands to Imran Khan but after their failed negotiations with the PTI leadership, they decided to march toward Khan's Bani Gala residence.

It was reported that some baton-wielding members of the Insaf Student Federation, the student wing of the PTI, tried to stop the protesters from marching towards Khan's house but failed, reported The Frontier Post.

The teachers, who have been employed at various KP educational institutions on an ad hoc basis, want to be treated in the same manner as the regular government employees.

Before the talks failed, PTI's central leader and former Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry assured the protesters that their demands will be fulfilled, reported The Frontier Post.

Chaudhry told the teachers to send their eight to ten representatives to meet Khan and present their demands, but when they went to Khan's Bani Gala residence, no one met them, said Young Teacher Association President Attaur Rehman.

He said the group waited for 2.5 hours, but not even a single PTI leader met them, let alone Khan. "We received calls from Murad Saeed asking us to go back to Peshawar and (hold) protest there," said Rehman.

The teachers claimed that they have been terminated for protesting but they are determined to continue to protest till their demands are met and a notification is issued.

In a separate development, on Khan's call, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) staged protests in seven cities across the country against runaway inflation and a record hike in the fuel prices on Sunday.

Protestors gathered at Shahrah-e-Quaideen in Karachi and staged a protest led by the former governor of Sindh province, Imran Ismail, and other members of the PTI's local leadership, the Dawn reported.

Slogans were raised against the incumbent government of Pakistan as the protestors held protests in front of the main Hashtnagri Gate in Peshawar. Similar protests were held in Islamabad and the neighboring Rawalpindi.

In Lahore, the protestors, which included a number of women, gathered at Liberty Chowk, the Dawn reported.

A huge police force was deployed on the road leading from Sharea Faisal to Shahrah-e-Quaideen to maintain the law and order situation during the protest.

Extending his support to the protestors, PTI chief Imran Khan virtually addressed them and said that he had asked people to take to the streets against inflation for their own good, the Dawn reported.