Fw: Over 200 Teachers Arrested in Pakistan

["Johannes Schneider" <Johannes.Schneider@xxxxxxx>]

This just came from the Pakistan Labour Party:

From: "Labour Pakistan" <labourparty@xxxxxxx>
To: <edufoundation@xxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, July 29, 2002 11:15 AM
Subject: Over 200 Teachers Arrested in Pakistan


> Over 200 Teachers Arrested in Pakistan
>
> Over two hundreds teachers were arrested by Lahore police today on 29th
> July. They were arrested outside Government Islamia Girls College Cooper
Road
> where a protest meeting was to be held against privatization. Hundreds of
> policemen were deployed since early morning to stop this rally. Women and
male
> professors and teachers were dragged to the police van while they tried to
enter
> the college premises. It is estimated that the police has picked up over
200
> teachers this morning.
>
> We just had been to a police station to meet the arrested teachers. They
> were 45 teachers including professor Nazim Husnain, the president of All
> Pakistan Professors and lecturers Association cram packed in a tiny room
with only
> fan. All the teachers were sweating but determined to fight back
> privatization.
>
> Women teachers were brought to Race Course police station of Lahore also
> receiving the same treatment.
>
> In a unique show of strength, all the teachers from the colleges and
schools
> are united in Joint Action Committee Teachers Punjab to launch a protest
> movement against the handing over the nationalized educational
institutions to
> the former owners. The notification to denationalize these institutions
> sparked an immediate movement of the teachers across Punjab who are
organizing
> protest meetings at various educational intuitions. Protest meetings have
been
> attended by thousands of teachers across Punjab during the last one-week.
>
> The military government issued the notification during the summer
vocations
> in a false hope that teachers without the help of the students would not
be
> able to resist against this. On the contrary, the movement of the teachers
is
> getting stronger and stronger forcing the government to curb this movement
by
> arresting the teachers.
>
> On 26th July, Labor Party Pakistan organized a one day All Parties
> Conference at Lahore Press Club against this anti education move. Several
political
> parties, Trade unions and social organizations attended the APC and vowed
to
> fight the privatization of the educational institutions.
>
> Most of the student organizations have also condemned the privatization of
> education and have declared their full support to the teachers.
>
> The joint Action Committee Teachers Punjab is holding a press conference
> today and appealing to teachers all over Pakistan to protest as strong as
> possible against the arrests.
>
> This an emergency appeals to all the teachers unions and other union
> movement internationally to take up this issue and send strong protest
against these
> brutal actions of the government.
>
> >From Farooq Tariq
> General secretary
> Labour Party Pakistan
>
> Raja Mehboob Hussain
> Information secretary
> Joint Action Committee
> Teachers Punjab
>
> Send your protests to
> Please send your protest letters to
>
> Chief Executive
> General Pervez Musharraf
> President of Pakistan
> CE Secretariat, Islamabad
> Email: ce@xxxxxxxxxx
> Fax: 92-51-9201051
>
> Federal Minister Education
> Zubaida Jilala
> E-mail: pak@xxxxxxxxx
> Fax Number 92 51 9202851
>
> Governor of Punjab
> Khalid Maqbool
> Governor Punjab
> Governor House, Lahore
> Fax: 92-42-9200077
>
>


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