FAPUASA condemns freezing of HEC budget

Islamabad:Prof Mazhar Iqbal (President), Prof Akhtiar Ali Ghumro (Vice President) and Prof Fareed Achakzai (General Secretary) of Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Associations (FAPUASA) has rejected the Federal Budget 2025-26.

In a joint statement, they expressed serious concerns over the continued freezing of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) recurring grant at Rs65 billion, an amount that remained unchanged since 2018. They also lamented ongoing neglect of Tenure Track System (TTS) faculty salaries, not revised since 2021.

The FAPUASA leadership highlighted that the stagnant allocation is highly insufficient to meet the rapidly increasing financial needs of the higher education sector. Since 2018, the number of universities and student enrollments increased significantly, while inflation, utility charges and operational expenditures continued to rise sharply. Despite these realities, the government failed to provide the additional funding required to sustain universities, placing severe financial strain on institutions across the country.

FAPUASA repeatedly demanded that the HEC budget be increased to at least Rs200 billion in order to maintain academic standards, promote quality education and support critical research activities essential for national progress. In addition, the teachers’ federation strongly criticised the government's persistently ignoring TTS faculty members, whose salaries remained frozen since 2021.

The FAPUASA leadership noted that while the government announced salary increases of up to 40% for government employees in the latest budget, universities were not provided with additional funds to meet these salary obligations thereby further escalating the financial crisis in the higher education sector.

FAPUASA strongly urged the government to reconsider and revise the Federal Budget 2025-26 and adequately address these critical issues in the Finance Bill. Failure to act will severely undermine Pakistan’s higher education system and negatively impact the country’s long-term socio-economic development, it concluded.