MANSEHRA: Contractual women teachers appointed to high and higher secondary schools here have been without salary for last one year.

`Such teachers have not been unpaid since their appointment in July last year,` Iftikhar Javed, a resident of Jarad area of Kaghan Valley, told reporters on Sunday.

Led by a group of locals, he said that they had recently met MPA Munir Hussain Lughmani and sought his supportforthe release ofthe pending salary ofteachers, particularly those appointed to girls`schoolsin Jarad area,but to no avail.

`The education department appointed teachers to high andhigher secondary schools to fill vacant posts, but they are without salary,` he said.

Mr Javed also said a number of the schools destroyed in the 2005 devastating earthquake were still functioning in makeshift shelters and were also short of teachers.

`If the government wants to ensure quality education for girls then it should release the teachers` salary without delay,` he said.

Another local, Mohammad Haroon said that Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur should order the release of salary to the contractualteachers.

`The chief minister should also ensure an early reconstruction of the schools destroyed in the earthquake almost two decades ago,` he said.POWER OUTAGES: MNA Shahzada Gustasab Khan on Sunday asked the Peshawar Electric Supply Company to end prolonged and unscheduled loadshedding in the Hazara division.

`Despite the recovery rate in the Hazara division is over 99 per centPescois observingprolonged and unscheduledloadsheddingin scorching heat,` he said while talking to reporters here.

The MNA said the federal government had failed to meet electricity shortfall in the country.

`The government has increased electricity tariff to an all-time high, but even then consumers have been experiencing long power outages,` Mr Khan said.

He said that people of Muzaffarabad (Azad Kashmir) poured onto the streets to compelthe government to reduce rates of wheat flour and electricity, and warned that the federal government could also face such a situation if it didn`t take corrective measures.

Mr Khan said that the government should take effective measures to ensure the rule of law and to bring down the runaway inflation to provide some relief to people.