Fazlehaq College principal blames politicians for teachers’ strike

Fazlehaq College principal blames politicians for teachers’ strike

MARDAN: A day after protests by college teachers and employees against him prompted the government to send him on 10 days leave, the Fazlehaq College Principal Colonel (R) Sultan Zeb said politicians had a hand in fuelling the token strike and politicizing the issue.

Talking to The News, he said the students had taken his side in the tussle and staged rally in his support. “Students totalling more than 700 from all the houses including Sahibzada, Sher Shah and Abdali came out in my support and criticized the teachers. I was told that today the teachers were threatening to punish the students and fail them in the examination in the practicals for supporting me,” he claimed.

Col (R) Sultan Zeb said the district administration and the education department asked him to go on 10 days leave to defuse the situation as they feared clashes between the students and teachers and other employees. He alleged that anti-ANP politicians Umar Farooq Hoti and Khan Akbar Afridi had come to the college and provoked the teachers and other staff against him. “Our college is located in the provincial assembly constituency, PK-23 Mardan, from where these two politicians are contesting against former chief minister and ANP leader Ameer Haider Hoti. They have been promising the teachers and staff that after winning election they would resolve all their problems and fulfill all the promises that chief minister Hoti had made and was unable to deliver,” he said.

According to Col (R) Sultan Zeb, he gave 125 percent raise in salaries to the teachers in the last three years by managing to obtain funds from the provincial government because the college had no money. He argued that presently he was unable to give the 20 percent raise in salaries demanded by the teachers as only the college board of governor was authorized to do so. “I served the college for almost seven years and raised the image of the college through hard work. I wasn’t bad all these years and now suddenly I am being criticized and protests are staged against me,” he said.

The college teachers had organized token strike for three days to demand the principal’s resignation. They blamed him for delaying implementation of the decision to raise their salaries by 20 percent, failing to maintain discipline in the college and availing extension in his service for two terms due to his political connections to the previous ANP-led provincial government

Source: The News