Police action on KP varsity teachers condemned

MULTAN: The Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (Punjab-chapter) Monday condemned police action on academics in Peshawar in response to their protest for rights.

The FAPUASA also observed a black day in Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) to express solidarity with KP universities teachers. The BZU teachers fastened black armbands, lambasted the government torturing teachers in Peshawar protest and said Punjab University teachers would stand with KP teachers till honoring their demands.

Peshawar police inhumanly baton charged and tear gassed teachers, which is highly condemnable, the protesting teachers said. Addressing a protest at BZU, FAPUSA Punjab chapter president Prof Dr Abdul Sattar Malik said torture on teachers was unacceptable and unjustified. He said the varsity teachers were protesting against pay cuts to protect their rights.

He said in the ongoing struggle against the problems facing the universities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, FAPUASA stands by the KP and he demanded that the government immediately withdraw the orders to reduce the allowances of teachers and employees of the universities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the provincial HEC Khyber Pakhtunkhwa should be set up immediately.

He called for increase in education budget and the scope of disparity allowance for teachers should be extended to grades 20 and 21. He warned if the government did not stop interfering in the autonomy of universities and did not give their legitimate rights to the universities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the scope of the protest would be widened after Black Day and universities across Pakistan would be expanded. Teachers will not spare a single minute to achieve their legitimate rights.

Prof Dr Abdul Sattar Malik urged the government to increase Higher Education Commission budget, increase 25 per cent in special allowances for all teachers and 75pc exemption in tax for university teachers.

He said the higher education sector has been severely neglected for many years. In the last four years, the size of the federal government's budget has increased by 30 per cent, after which its volume has increased from Rs 5,100 billion to Rs 7,300 billion. But unfortunately in the meantime the budget for the current expenditure of higher education institutions has been frozen at the level of about Rs 64 billion, due to which all the public sector universities in Pakistan are suffering from severe financial crisis and many universities have teachers and staff but they have no budget for salaries.

He said in the last few years, the number of government and semi-government higher education institutions has increased from 100 to 140 and the number of their sub-campuses has exceeded 100, making their expenditure huge, which is a challenge.