Teachers, employees of universities stage rally

PESHAWAR: Thousands of the teaching and non-teaching employees of different universities staged a protest here on Tuesday to press the provincial government and universities’ administrations for acceptance of their demands.

The demonstration was jointly organised by the Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (FAPUASA), University Officers Association, and the Employees Federation Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at the University of Peshawar.

The protesters chanted slogans against the provincial government and the university administration.

FAPUASA President Dr Jamil Ahmad Chitrali, provincial president Dr Izhar Ahmed, President of Officers Associations Dr Muhammad Ilyas Khan and President of Employers Federation, Haji Salahuddin, addressed the demonstration.

In their speeches, the speakers expressed concern over the ongoing financial and administrative crises of the universities and held the provincial government and the vice-chancellors of the universities were responsible for the situation.

They urged the government to include the announced increase in the salaries of university teachers and employees at the earliest.

They demanded that the service terms - allowances and facilities - of teachers and employees should not be changed illegally.

They also expressed concern over the universities bid to increase students’ fee in the name of resource mobilisation and stressed the universities’ administration to refrain from any such decision.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government should allocate a share to the universities in the provincial budget and bear at least 30 percent of the universities’ expenditure and the announced grants for the universities should be paid soon, they further demanded.

The employees’ leaders reiterated their demand about formation of a higher education commission at the provincial level.

They criticised the role of certain vice-chancellors and urged the government to remove “incompetent vice-chancellors” from their offices at the earliest.

They alleged that the minister of higher education, some administrative secretaries and vice chancellors were violating the Universities’ Act and they should stop the exercise. They also stressed the need for some urgent amendments to the Universities Act in consultation with all stakeholders.

The protest movement would continue till the demands were approved, they said, they would stage a protest in front of Banigala in Islamabad if the provincial government failed to show seriousness in resolving their demands by July 20.