LARKANA: Primary school teachers under the All Sindh Primary Teachers Association (PTA) launched the fourth phase of their protest movement in Larkana on Sunday, with leaders warning of a foot march to Karachi Press Club if the government fails to notify a service structure for the province’s primary teachers.
The PTA’s Larkana division, district, taluka and city chapters held a workers’ convention at the Government Deeni Madrassah Primary School under central president Haji Shafi Muhammad Sathio, followed by a rally and demonstration outside the local press club.
Addressing the convention, Mr Sathio said the government’s failure to notify the already-recognised service structure amounted to ‘injustice, cruelty and unfairness’ towards teachers. He said the current workers’ conventions, being held at the division level across Sindh, followed earlier phases of protest a signature campaign, three-day sit-ins and hunger strikes at the taluka level, and subsequent districtlevel demonstrations.
He said that once conventions were completed across the province, the PTA would launch a foot march from Garhi Khuda Bakhsh Bhutto to Karachi Press Club. Should the demands remain unmet, he warned, the march would proceed onward to Bilawal House, where the association would stage a sit-in.
Participants also condemned what they termed a scheme against the unity of the province, chanting slogans in favour of Sindh’s unity. Earlier, Mr Sathio and other PTA leaders visited Garhi Khuda Bakhsh Bhutto, where they laid floral sheets and offered fateha at the mausoleums of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto, Mir Murtaza Bhutto and Shahnawaz Bhutto.