UET staff to protest if financial crisis not resolved

LAHORE:University of Engineering & Technology (UET) Lahore’s Teaching Staff Association (UET-TSA) has announced staging protest demonstration outside Governor House on 8th July if the government did not extend financial support to the university to bring it out of financial crisis.

The UET Lahore has been facing severe financial crisis and had decided to impose cuts on salaries and pension of the staff, including teachers for the month of June. Addressing a press conference after an emergent meeting of the UET-TSA, its president Dr Fahim Gohar Awan said UET Lahore was undergoing severe financial crisis and despite repeated requests the government did not pay heed owing to which the university was now unable to pay salaries and pensions to its employees.

He said on one hand, the Punjab government announced bonus for employees of some departments while the university teachers and other employees who had been working hard despite Covid-19 were deprived of their due salaries.

Dr Fahim Gohar Awan said the provincial government owed around Rs1 billion to the UET Lahore as funds from the university were spent on Rachna College of Engineering and Technology (RCET), Gujranwala, while the university was also extending financial support to other engineering institutes owing to which its financial resources had depleted over the years.

He demanded the government take notice of the crisis and bring the university out of crisis; otherwise, the teachers had no option but to go for strike, he added. Dr Tanvir Qasir said before coming into power, the incumbent government had mentioned education and health sectors as its priority but unfortunately the same was not the reality.