Punjab caretaker government to hand over 1000 government schools to “Muslim Hands”

Lahore (Sahiwal Updates – Teachers News) The caretaker government of Punjab province of Pakistan has decided to entrust the management and supervision of 1000 government schools of the province to an NGO, Muslim Hands Pakistan.

According to a report by Radio Pakistan, this decision was taken during a meeting between Caretaker Chief Minister Punjab Mohsin Naqvi and a six-member delegation of NGO “Muslim Hands Pakistan” in Lahore on Sunday.

On this occasion, Mohsin Naqvi said that the quality of education in government schools would be improved with the cooperation of private sector and welfare organizations. He said that the Punjab government would consider upgrading the emergency departments of major hospitals with the support of Muslim Hands Pakistan.

It should be noted that some time ago, the caretaker government handed over about ten thousand schools across the province to the respective district administrations to improve them. Special funds have also been approved for those ten thousand schools.

From this development it seems that the caretaker government will gradually hand over those 10 thousand schools to NGOs and the private sector. At present two hundred schools in different areas of Punjab are managed by NGO Muslim Hands. The management of these schools was handed over to Muslim hands in the year 2017 during the regime of Pakistan Muslim League-N and later during the regime of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf.

Why are teachers across Punjab on strike and why are schools being locked?

Currently, more than 300,000 teachers of about 47,700 government schools in Punjab province are on strike and protest and the educational process has been suspended for eleven days. The AGEGA leaders say a new “East India Company” is being created. It is a general impression that such NGOs are being run by Qadianis. If the management of government schools goes to such NGOs, the nation’s narrative will go into the background.

The second major reason for the teachers’ protest is that the caretaker chief minister of Punjab province Mohsin Naqvi’s government on June 1 issued a controversial notification of “reduction and termination of various privileges” of provincial employees, which is effective immediately. Reduction in leave encashment, gratuity, pension and commutation” are included in that notification. All benefits given to the employees will now be given on “initial basis” instead of “running basis”.

What is the difference between Running Basic Salary and Initial Basic Salary?

The running basic salary of a scale is the salary that is current and includes several annual increments. Initial Basic salary refers to the first pay of a scale which is very low. If the current running basic of an employee is 50 thousand rupees, then his initial basic can be 16 thousand rupees.

“What are leave encashment, gratuity, pension and commutation?

The leaves of government employees that they do not take accumulate every year. At the end of the service, if those vacations exceed one year, the employee is given the facility of leave encashment, that is, the compensation for not taking these vacations, which used to be on running basis in the past, will now be on initial basis. In this also, now the employee is bound to apply for leave three months before the commencement of the last year of service so that the government does not have to pay money for leave encashment.

Gratuity is the amount which is deducted monthly from the salary of the employees and is paid together at the end of the service. Monthly pension will now also be given on initial basic salary, in the past it was given on running basis.

Mandate of caretaker provincial government

Chief Coordinator AGEGA Pakistan Rehman Bajwa and other leaders challenged the notification based on the exploitation of government employees in the court and raised questions on the mandate of the caretaker provincial government.

The court dismissed the cases filed against AGEGA leaders and teachers and ordered their release. After the cases of AGEGA leaders were dismissed, the police re-arrested them under 16 MPO and transferred them to Kot Lakhpat Jail.