Daily Times

KHYBER AGENCY: Academic activities were suspended in Government Degree College Landi Kotal on Tuesday. The move follows in the footsteps of a number of educational institutes in the tribal belt.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Professors and Lecturers Association (KPPLA) Landi Kotal President Professor Shah Muhammad, confirming an indefinite boycott of classes, said that in a meeting of action committee of KPPLA held last Sunday, the committee unanimously decided to initiate boycott of academic activities in all government colleges of KP and FATA until the acceptance of their demands.

The decision was ratified in professors’ convention, he maintained.

He added that KPPLA’s demands included: upgradation of college teachers; expediting training; promotion of professors on vacant vacancies; and teaching allowance regularization of teacher assistance. Witnessing the intransigent attitude of the government, KPPLA decided to begin the indefinite strike till the fulfillment of their demands, Shah Muhammad said.

The KPPLA office bearers threatened if their demands were not immediately addressed, they would organize a sit-in, in front of Imran Khan’s resident in Bani Gala, Islamabad from next Monday. On the other hand, the students regretted the professors’ strike and said that such acts would waste their precious time.

Landi Kotal Degree College student leader Shah Fahad said that in the whole academic year, classes were taught for only three months on the account of vacations, exams and other extra-curriculum activities. He asked if the teaching staff of the institution would go on strike, how the students would complete their courses. The students asked for reinstatement of studies in the college.

Published in Daily Times, October 11^th 2017.