Pakistan: Police baton-charge, arrest protesting schoolteachers in Peshawar

Peshawar [Pakistan], October 8 Dozens of Pakistani schoolteachers, who have been demanding the upgradation of their pay scales and restoration of allowances, have been arrested by Peshawar police, according to local media.
Dawn reported that the police arrested dozens of schoolteachers after resorting to baton-charge and tear gas firing to disperse their rally on Thursday.
Meanwhile, in response to police action against teachers, the Primary School Teachers' Association of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa announced the closure of all government primary schools in the province from Friday.
The teachers closed around 15,000 government primary schools for boys across the province in the day to join the Peshawar rally on the call of their association, according to Dawn.
Thousands of teachers showed up outside the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly and blocked the Khyber Road to traffic causing snarl-ups on the city's major arteries, it said further.
A statement was issued by the police which said that the stones thrown by the teachers injured six policemen and damaged some media vehicles.
"We also took dozens of protesting teachers into custody. We will take further action against them after checking their particulars," the police said in the statement, reported Dawn.
It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan is facing an economic slump in the country. The government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province failed to provide salaries to its employees on the first day of October, blaming it on the non-payment of the province's dues by the ruling coalition.
The matter came to light straight after the National Bank of Pakistan was issued letters by the district account offices for the delay in salary payment to the government employees, Dawn reported.
As per sources, the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is under a crunch of PKR 275 billion in funding due to the non-payment of hydel profit dues and payments for flood losses, Dawn reported.
Pakistan's economy is forecast to slow to 3.5 per cent in the financial year 2022-23 due to reasons like devastating floods and policy tightening, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has said in its latest report.
According to the Asian Development Outlook (ADO) 2022 Update, GDP growth in Pakistan in the financial year 2021-2022 was propelled by higher private consumption and an expansion in agriculture, services and industry--particularly large-scale manufacturing.
But in the financial year, 2022-23--as well as climate headwinds and Pakistan's critical policy efforts--ADB's lower growth projection also reflects double-digit inflation.
Pakistan's inflation spiked to 21.3 per cent in June, its highest since 2008, lifting average headline inflation to 12.2 per cent in in the financial year 2021-2022.