College teachers across Sindh boycotted academic activities on Monday following a call by the Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association, as their protest over long-standing demands regarding promotions, staffing, and allowances intensified.
SPLA President Prof Munawwar Abbas said the association will hold a sit-in outside Bilawal House in Karachi on February 12 to urge the provincial government to address their concerns. He added that teachers had been protesting for more than a month but had received no meaningful response from the Sindh government or the College Education Department.
The association’s main demands include the implementation of the five-tier formula, convening departmental promotion committees to fill thousands of vacant lecturer positions, holding Board-I and Board-II meetings, and revising the sanctioned staff strength according to student-teacher ratios.
SPLA is also calling for the establishment of new colleges based on the province’s needs. Other demands focus on fair transfer and posting policies, immediate hiring of non-teaching staff, better college infrastructure, improved furniture and laboratory equipment, and provision of textbooks for computer science, commerce, and arts subjects.
Teachers are also seeking merit-based appointments, restoration of frozen allowances, and payment of MPhil and PhD allowances in line with court rulings. Prof Abbas noted that repeated meetings with college authorities failed to produce results, leaving teachers with no choice but to escalate their protest.
Office-bearers from Karachi, Hyderabad, and Sukkur joined the boycott and reiterated their demands.