College cadre posts withdrawn from varsities in Punjab

LAHORE: In a major development, the Punjab Higher Education Department has withdrawn around 1,100 college cadre posts from different public sector universities, it is learnt.

From July 1 onwards, these teachers would be posted in public sector colleges across the province. Sources in the HED said that in the first phase college cadre posts in universities established in 2012 or before have been withdrawn while in the next phase such posts in universities established after 2012 would be withdrawn and all such teachers would be repatriated to colleges.

It is pertinent to mention that these HED college cadre teachers had been performing their duties in different universities while withdrawing their salaries from the Punjab HED. The move has attracted criticism from the teachers, primarily because of fear of dislocation in the wake of subsequent posting in colleges and in some cases they feel hurt because of a change in “status” from a university teacher to a college teacher.

A delegation of the Punjab Professors & Lecturers Association (PPLA) had also met Punjab Assembly Speaker Ch Parvaiz Elahi and apprised him of concerns with regard to this mass-level repatriation.

An HED Punjab official said that there was a shortage of teaching staff in public sector colleges and these repatriated teachers would now be posted in colleges to meet the demand. He said that universities were autonomous bodies and could make arrangements for hiring individuals against these college cadre posts.

Talking to The News, Punjab Higher Education Minister Raja Yassir Humayun Sarfraz said that the universities, which were upgraded from colleges, were now well established universities. He said there was no bar if the college cadre teachers wanted to join the services of their respective universities. He said never in the past public sector universities had advertised as many teaching posts as the universities were advertising now because statutes of 18 universities were passed even since he joined the office of the higher education minister.

Raja Yassir said that if the teachers really wanted to stay in the universities, they could apply against teaching posts advertised by the universities. He, however, said that if any college cadre teacher was involved in some groundbreaking research at his or her university, the department was even ready to treat that teacher as on deputation. He said that at present there was a shortage of teachers in colleges and these repatriated teachers would be posted in colleges.

Meanwhile, the HED has directed all such repatriated teachers to submit three options in their nearby colleges (priority wise) to avoid dislocation. The department further directed that all concerned are required to join the HED for further postings on July 1, 2021, onward.