LAHORE: A large number of students and teachers from the Dyal Singh College on Tuesday held a protest at Lakshmi Chowk in support of the public college teachers’ sit-in being held outside the Civil Secretariat for the last 23 days.

       The students raised slogans in support of the protesting teachers and supported their demands.

       The college teachers, including the Punjab Professors and Lecturers Association (PPLA), Young Lecturers Association and Nawa-i-Astaza, are holding the sit-in to demand pay and service protection. The protesters are blocking the road in protest against the bureaucracy and the government for delay in acceptance of their demands. The teachers are also boycotting the classes in all colleges of the province from 10am to 11am daily.

       Though the service of the contract lecturers from the four batches was regularised, their contract service period was not counted while the related service benefits were also not given to them, the protesters said.

       The teachers added that the government had accepted their demands in 2019 and they had ended their sit-in while a summary was also prepared to address the issue.

       However, the summary was not forwarded to the chief minister, they said and added that they would not end the sit-in until issuance of an order to the effect.

       Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2022