SAHIWAL: The Punjab Professors and Lecturers Association (PPLA) announced observing an indefinite protest sit-in in Lahore from April 18 to press the higher education department to accept their demands.

This was announced by Hafiz Abdul Khalig Nadeem, provincial president of the PPLA, while addressing a college teachers gathering at Government Post Graduate College, Okara on Tuesday noon.

The gathering was organised by PPLA`s local college unit in honour of retirement of Prof Hafiz Musadiq Ali.

Nadeem told the gathering that college teachers from nine divisional headquarters of Punjab will participate in the sit-in.

He alleged that the higher education department was deliberately not accepting their genuine demands.

He demanded reversal of the `illogical` rationalisation policy, one-step upgrade of college teachers, approval of time-scale promotion, pay protection and stoppage of deductionform salary, refixation of college teacher cadre after revision of ratio proportion in four-tier formula, devolution and delegation of administrative powers to director public instruction, divisional directorate and principal offices, appointment of college teachers on administrative posts such as chairman, controller and boards secretary, withdrawal of monthly two-day casual leave formula, issuance of MPhil and PhD scholarship quota to college teachers, and release of MPhil and PhD allowances to new selectees.

He further said PPLA had entered into negotiations twice with the department, including secretary and special secretary education, but both the times they used delaying tactics.

Nadeem told Dawn that the department was not sending the draft proposal to the chief secretary or the chief minister for their final approval. He claimed that they even consulted with senior PML-N leaders, including Rana Sanaullah and Khwaja Saad Rafique, but to no avail. That is why they decided to stage a sitin in Lahore.