The ban on the Sindh Teachers' Union was another step by the dictatorial regime of General Musharraf, who is following the dictates of the IMF and the World Bank to implement its rule of tyranny in the country.

The teachers of Sindh decided to protest against this repression and struggle for their rights. All the teachers' unions of Sindh decided to hold a sit-in in front of the Chief Minister house on 22^nd August.

General Musharraf and his toadies decided to crush this protest and started arresting teachers the night before the protest. Thousands of teachers were arrested across the Sindh province and were thrown into jail.

Comrade Anwar Panhwar of the Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign, who is also a teacher  and member of GASTA (Secondary School teachers' union) decided to leave his hometown Dadoo along with hundreds of other teachers for Karachi to participate in a sit-in at midnight around 1am.

When they boarded their buses bound for Karachi they were stopped by the local police officers and were held without any charge. Comrade Abdul Ghani, District President of GASTA, and Zulfiqar Khoso, District General Secretary of GASTA, were also arrested by the police and thrown into jail. Comrade Javed Akbar Memon, Fida Hussain Bhatti and Liaqat Jatoi were also arrested. According to reports from Sukhur, Hyderabad and other areas of Sindh more than 4,000 teachers were arrested and held till noon of 22^nd  August.

However, the will and determination of teachers against this suppression surpassed all the obstacles and nearly 2000 teachers were able to gather at Karachi Press Club. They decided to march towards Chief Minister House and hold a sit-in there. But they were met by the hostile forces of the state that severely baton-charged them and used a heavy amount of tear gas. But the teachers moved on and on. At last police started arresting them and increased their brutality by throwing shells and tear gas.

Marxist MP Manzoor Ahmed, who was attending the session in National Assembly, immediately replied to this incident. After talking to comrade Liaqat, Rafeeq Jarwar (president of Alliance of teachers' unions) and other leaders of GASTA and PTUDC in Karachi he led a walk-out from the National Assembly along with all the opposition members.

Nazim Husnain, president of Punjab professors and Lecturers Association on talking with the correspondent of PTUDC condemned this brutality by the state and announced that the teachers from Punjab will protest against this oppression.

Currently the teachers in Karachi have gathered in the Press Club and are continuing their protest as long as the ban on their union remains in effect.

Report by Adam Pal 

Your help is needed! 

You can send a protest message to the President of Pakistan by going to this site:

http://www.presidentofpakistan.gov.pk/Write2thePresident.aspx

Please also include

Chief Secretary Sindh

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Special Secretary Education

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Secretary Chief Minister Secretariat

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with a copy to

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You can also find your local Pakistani embassy, if you wish to write to them, at:

http://www.embassyworld.com/embassy/pakistan.htm

And of course solidarity messages can be sent to:

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