LAHORE: Schoolteachers ended on Monday their three-day sit-out at the Punjab Assembly in respect of Ramazan.

Punjab All Teachers` Alliance President Ramzan Ingalabi told Dawn even though the Punjab School Education Department refused to accept their demands, in respect of Ramazan they had decided to halt their protest till Eid.

He said the education department officials took a plea that Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif was in London and in his absence they could not commit anything, except the formation of a committee to look into their demands.

`We want the government to issue a notification regarding stopping handing over the public schools to the the Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) and teachers upgradation. If the government does not do so we will be back on roads after Eid,` Mr Ingalabi said.

An education department official said they were willing to redress the schoolteachers problems and offered their representativesto discuss the matter in a committee.

Last month, the Punjab government had agreed not to hand over public schools having 20 or more students enrollment to the PEF and NGOs. Schoolteachers`upgradation was also promised besides promotion of PSTs, ESTs and SSTs into grade 14, 16 and 17, respectively. But so far no notification in this regard has been issued.

In the Erst phase, the department last month handed over 1,000 primary schools to NGOs that will run them in collaboration with the PEF. In the second phase, some 5,000 public schools would be privatised under public-private partnership.

UVAS: University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences faculty members of poultry, fisheries and animal nutrition and meat technologyonMondayrecommended enhancing import duty on whey milk and powdered milk at least 75 per cent.

The meeting said fisherles, poultry and red meat sectors shouldbeincludedin the zero rated sectors. They also recommended heavy import duties on the import of ñsh feed to strengthen local fish feed industry.