[Reader-list] Teachers' Movement in Sindh

[Zulfiqar Shah]

Dear All: 
Sindh University teachers’ struggle has entered 50th day, the campus is off and the teachers’ bodies of the other universities in the province are also on the strike since a couple of weeks. It seems that Sindh Government, particularly Governor of Sindh and Education Minister are keen to decline the demands like removing Vice Chancellor etc.
The recent teachers’ movement in Sindh is a kind of first initiative of activism in Sindh by higher education faculties, in which majority of the students, a considerable number of civil society activists and some political parties have been supporting their struggle.
It seems that the rulers as well as the state have become so immune to the people’s movements that they don’t take even notice of such a struggle. This kind of behaviors by the authorities will further add up in the upcoming anarchy in Pakistan where people have almost lost their trust in the state institutions as well as civil government, particularly in Sindh and Baluchistan. What kind of message is being signaled to the orbit of the society by not turning an ear to peoples’ movement? That our security establishment, civil bureaucracy and government damn care about peaceful people’s movements? 
The people of this country have been struggling on various issues since last six decades; out of which majority of struggles have gone less fruitful. This is the time in Pakistan particularly in Sindh that we need to rethink our strategies regarding carrying struggle and to reconsider movements building and supporting. 
Let us also think about and support the teachers’ movement in Sindh and strengthen it in way that it encounters a success for the better future of education in Pakistan. 
Regards,
Zulfiqar Shah    
The Institute for Social Movements, Pakistan 
Hyderabad