ISLAMABAD
Students and teachers across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) continued their protests on Tuesday against the provincial government’s plan to outsource low-enrolled colleges. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Professors and Lecturers Association (KPPLA) has also opposed a proposal linking teachers’ promotions to MPhil degrees and research work in their respective subjects.
The KPPLA action committee, led by Professor Qazi Zafar Iqbal, held a meeting and unanimously decided to maintain the boycott of classes until the higher education department withdraws the outsourcing decision. Teachers stayed away from classrooms after 10 a.m., while students staged demonstrations across multiple districts.
Protests were reported at Shabqadar Government Degree College in Charsadda, Government Postgraduate College in Swabi—where students blocked the Swabi-Mardan Road for several hours—and at College Chowk in Mardan, organized by Jamiat Talaba Islam. Demonstrators carried banners and placards demanding the government reverse the decision to hand over 55 public colleges to private management.
The KPPLA plans to hold local meetings to mobilize support, inform lawmakers, and pressure the provincial assembly to reconsider the policy. Hafiz Farmanullah, JTI provincial general secretary, criticized the outsourcing plan, asserting that education is a fundamental right that should not be treated as a business or profit-making opportunity.
The protests are expected to intensify if the provincial government does not respond to teachers’ and students’ demands.
