Islamabad : Employees, faculty, and retired staff of Quaid-i-Azam University are complaining that QAU has not yet paid 10 per cent raise in their salary and pension announced by the government in the fiscal year 2021-22 last June.
An official on the question of anonymity told the News that the government did not make any corresponding increase in the grant of the university and the QAU which was already hand to mouth could not pay the increase which was due in the salary and pension since the month of July this year. He hoped that after the students pay their fees for the Fall Semester, the situation may improve and QAU would be able to pay the raise with arrears.
It may be mentioned that students had observed strikes last month against fees increase and lack of amenities in the hostels.
In a letter addressed to Vice-Chancellor Muhammad Ali Shah, five retired professors of QAU said that in the face of “galloping inflation,” the retired university pensioners are financially very hard up and finding it very difficult to make both ends meet.
They observed that the university authorities were “very callous by denying them their legitimate rights.” They said it is like condemning the aged pensioners to “dire financial straits.”
The retired professors opined that it seems to be “humiliating for the professors to beg for their pension after adding so much to the prestige of the university by their years of illustrious and selfless service.”
The professors who had been very active for the rights of the staff while at QAU called the delay an “unjust and illegal act towards the retired professors and employees in the twilight years of their lives.”
They called upon the Prime Minister and the President of Pakistan to take notice of it. They also warned that if arrears are allowed to accumulate, it would become difficult for QAU to pay them later.