Teachers of the federal government educational institutions are all set to take to the streets against the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) for blocking their house rent for the last one and half year.
“We have convened an emergency meeting of teachers on Tuesday to decide the protests schedule. Our patience is now running out, as the owners of the rented houses have been threatening to throw out our belongings on the roads,” said Prof Tahir Mahmood, the general secretary of the Federal Government College Teachers Association (FGCTA), on Friday.
The teachers of the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE)-run educational institutions are facing difficulties as they had not been paid the monthly house rent allowance for the last one and half years due to the paucity of funds.
Prof Tahir said whenever they approached to the FDE DG for funds he ‘consoled’ them that a summary had been moved to CAAD for allocation of funds. However, CAAD Joint Secretary Prof Rafiq Tahir was holding the file for the last two months over some known reasons.
“My landlord has been demanding the rent for the last two month. I have not paid the rent for the past four months because the government has not released our rent allowance,” said Professor Tariq, a lecturer at H/8 College. The teachers’ community has been pursuing the FDE and the Capital Administration and Development Division, which are supposed to look after the affairs of educational institutions, but have been unsuccessful in obtaining the stalled funds. The professors and teachers are being humiliated by the owners of their houses on a daily basis.
“We and our families were under extreme stress as a result of the situation and many were suffering psychologically,” said Professor Yasmeen Rehman. “We managed earlier by borrowing money from our friends and relatives or by taking out loans from banks. Now most of us have run out of money. Our landlords are threatening to throw us out if we do not pay our outstanding rent,” she added.
It is relevant to note here that the government is regularly paying house ceiling grants to all government employees, with the exception of the FDE teachers.
Talking to Pakistan Today a couple of days ago, FGSTA President Azhar Awan said around five thousands school teachers were living in rented houses. He demanded that the government release the funds required and add the rent allowance for the coming months to the teachers’ salaries. FDE Director General Atif Kayani a couple of days ago while talking to this issue had told Pakistan Today that he had moved a summary to CAAD to get a supplementary grant to pay the teachers their allowance.
Pakistan Today observed that due to the non-payment of funds, a majority of the teachers had shifted to the suburbs in search of low-rent housing. Since many had to now commute over large distances to reach their institutions, the added traveling time was adversely affecting their efficiency. It may be recalled here that during last year college teachers boycotted classes for more than three weeks against the delay in their due promotions announced by Prime Minister. And finally, government had to give them their due promotions.
