PESHAWAR: Heated debate was witnessed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly over denial of minimum wages to those teachers, who work in government schools operating in the second shift and non-formal schools for girls.

The minister for elementary and secondary education, Arshed Ayub Khan, and the adviser to chief minister on finance, Muzzaamil Aslam, were found grappling for answers over the quarries pertaining to teachers’ salaries, which is less than the minimum wage fixed by the government for the unskilled labour. Speaker Babar Saleem Swati chaired the session of provincial assembly.

The issue was raised by the lawmaker of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Ubaidur Rehman, who participated in the debate on budget that continued for the third consecutive day.

“Thousands of teachers performing in the second shift at government schools face exploitation as government has denied minimum wage to them,” he said on the floor of the house.

Speaker directs education minister to relieve the officials who inked a ‘cruel’ agreement with teachers

He said that minimum wage for the outgoing fiscal year was Rs40,000, however, the provincial government was paying Rs25,000 to thousands of teachers performing duties in state-run schools in the province in the second shift.

He said that such teachers were paid their salaries after three months that too after facing many hurdles. The mover demanded of the government to reconsider the salaries of such teachers.

He said that at least they should be given minimum wage fixed by the government for the unskilled labour.

“Its big injustice with teachers if they are paid less than the minimum wage,” the speaker ruled while interrupting the debate in the house. He directed the minister for education and adviser to chief minister on finance to come to the house and brief it on that serious issue as both of them were sitting in lobbies.

Muzzaamil Aslam informed the house that those teachers were working under the elementary and secondary education foundation. He claimed that their job was part-time and not regular.

“These teachers’ salaries are fixed and not linked with the minimum wage,” he said. He asked the speaker to talk to the minister for education about the issue.

Commenting on the issue, the speaker said that it was wrong practice to issue salaries less than minimum wage. “It is wrong that government announces minimum wage in the fiscal budget and then does not implement it on teachers,” he said.

The speaker questioned as to why the teachers were disgraced. “These teachers are our children,” he added.

He said that government announced Rs45,000 in the budget as minimum wage for unskilled labour from the next fiscal year, so the government should ensure its implementation on teachers also.

“If the education department needs additional Rs3 billion or Rs4 billion to pay minimum wage to such teachers, the government should release the amount immediately,” said the speaker.

He directed the education minister to revise the agreement with teachers and relieve the officials of education foundation, who inked such a ‘cruel’ agreement with the teachers.

Responding to the quaries, Minister Arshed Ayub Khan said that he had no objection if government awarded minimum wage to those teachers. “We will send a summary to cabinet for approval in this connection,” he added.

Lawmakers from Hazara division expressed concerns over the allocation of meagre funds for the development package announced by Chief Minister Mohammad Sohail Afridi for the region. They said that a meeting should be held with the chief minister to increase funds for Hazara division.

The session was in progress till filing of this report.

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2026