ISLAMABAD: Federal capitals D-Chowk turned into a battlefield as teachers started to march towards Parliament House to press for their demands on Thursday.
Teachers of the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) today staged a protest against the government decision to put Islamabads educational institutions under the Municipal Corporation through Local Government Ordinance 2021.
The protesters and the security forces scuffled when they were stopped from marching forward. The enraged protestors reached in front of the Parliament by removing the barriers.
They also chanted slogans against the incumbent government and demanded to withdraw its decision. We will continue the protest until acceptance of demands, the protestors vowed.
On Nov 24, after the approval of the federal cabinet, President Dr Arif Alvi promulgated the Islamabad Local Government Ordinance 2021.
This ordinance, besides explaining other functions of the local government, says in Section 166 that the mayor would be the reporting officer of the director-general of the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE).
The FDE regulates all 390 schools of the federal capital and under the ordinance the directorate would be devolved to the local government a step which is not acceptable to teachers and non-teaching staff, who have been stating that it would be beyond the capacity of the mayor and local government to deal with the FDE as it required an annual budget of around Rs20 billion.