fata technical colleges closure

Merged areas elders have demanded the authorities to reopen the technical colleges of the region which are closed for past many days due to employees protest.

They said that there was concerns among the public regarding the closure of technical colleges as prolonged closure will negatively impact the studies.

These colleges are closed due to the protest of contractual employees, who are on strike against delay in their regularization, despite passage of legislation to this effect from the provincial assembly earlier last year.

On August 8, contractual employees staged a protest outside the chief minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa home in Matta area of Swat and ended their protest following assurance of meeting of demands.

However, at same time said that closure of colleges will continue till the notification of their regularization.

The general public on the other hand said that closure of colleges was leading to loss of education of tribal youths as academic year had started from August 1.

They demanded that genuine demands of the employees should be met to avoid more wastage of students’ time.

Haji Syed Badshah, chairman Khar tehsil in Bajaur said that tribal students suffered greatly due to closure of schools back in 2008 military operations.

“Many of the children were forced to do jobs after leaving schools,” he said.

He said that recent closure of schools will also badly affect the students.

Riaz Khan, president of the project employee told TNN that the industries department was employing delay tactics in issuing the notification.

He asked the chief minister KP and provincial minister Anwar Zeb Khan to take stock of the situation.

The protesting employees said that following their protest outside in Matta, they were assured about resolution of their issue.

However, they said that their protest will continue till the issuance of notification of their regularization. “Our contract has expired since June 30 and in case of further delay they would be compelled to do more protests,” they said.