Despite announcement in the federal budget for a 20 percent increase in the salary of public servants, the academic and non-academic staff of public sector universities has been denied this increase as the Federal government has not yet released the required funds to the Higher Education Commission (HEC).
Sources told news agencies that a total allocation of Rs. 6 billion was required for a full year to meet the expenditures of increased salaries of over one lakh academic, administrative and other staff in public sector universities across the country.
They said that even after the lapse of three months the relief could not be passed on to the staff who were now showing signs of frustration. They said last year the government also increased salaries of civil servants but the HEC was not given the Rs. 2 billion under the salary head to meet the demand. As a result, the universities were presently under considerable financial constraint.
The academic staff of the universities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) was already protesting over the delay in payment for the second week and the crisis showed signs of deepening as other universities were also planning to join the protest.
When contacted, Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association President, Professor Kaleemullah condemned the attitude of the government and demanded that the required allocations should be released immediately to pay the staff accordingly. He said if the government had no adequate resources, it should not have announced the increase in salaries for cheap publicity.
Prof Kaleemullah said there was a strong resentment among the academic staff in universities and it would be better for the government to release the required funds without further delay, otherwise they would have no alternative but to take to the roads. He said that would hurt the working environment of the universities.
He was of the view that some vested interests in the Ministry of Finance were out to destroy the education and research system in the universities.
