Intelligentsia stage sit-in against HEC

Islamabad:A large number of PhD professors have strongly protested against government policies and staged a ‘sit-in’ in front of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) here on Monday.

All Pakistan Tenure Track Faculty Association (APTTA) President Dr Khurram Shahzad and General Secretary Dr Qazi M Zaigham led the protest rally which was attended by Prof Dr Mahnaz Haseeb, Dr Rab Nawaz, Dr Fahad Munir Abbasi from COMSAT University Islamabad, Dr Asma Gull, Dr Bashir Ahmed from International Islamic University Islamabad, Dr Bilal Abbasi, Dr Ishtiaq from Quaid-e-Azam University and several other PhD professors who demanded of the government to accept their demands immediately otherwise they will lockdown twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The sit-in of intellectuals was continued till the filing of this report.

The protesters said that they were facing a hard time due to irresponsible behaviour of HEC. The HEC has completely failed to address the issues of the higher education sector in general and Tenure Track Status (TTS) issues in particular. More than 1,100 PhDs have been rendered jobless in the country while several are working on contract basis for over 10 years.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Khurram Shahzad and Dr Qazi M Zaigham said that HEC has failed to address genuine issues of professors. They said that HEC chairman failed to resolve the loopholes in TTS system and implementing the recommendations of the BPS/TTS review committee and he must be held accountable for this. While the problems of the TTS faculty lack the interest of the HEC chair, the HEC QAD sections seem unable to fulfill its responsibilities, they strongly denounced.

The angry protesters said that it is necessary to appoint the qualified people in this section so that contract and timely decisions can be made. They demanded that the HEC should honour the recommendations of the BPS/TTS review committee and put in place well-structured policies for ‘Job Security,’ timely endorsements, pension, timely salary rise, working on administrative posts, health leaves and stable publication policy.