Payment of salaries, pensions: Agriculture varsity looks to govt for interim relief

PESHAWAR: Unable to pay salary and pension to its current and retired employees for the month of February, Agriculture University Peshawar is waiting for interim relief from the provincial government to release the wages before the upcoming holy month of Ramazan.

The faculty and pensioners of the university have asked the government to look into the matter and help them get their pays and pensions before Ramazan so that they could be relieved of the mental stress.

A retired professor of the university urged Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur to issue the interim grant to the university at the earliest so that they could get their pensions and make arrangements for Ramazan.

Reached for comments, Vice-Chancellor of the university Prof Dr Jan Bakht told The News that the university was in urgent need of Rs200 million for the salaries and pensions. “The caretaker government kept us waiting till the arrival of the elected government. The elected government told us to wait for the budget. After the budget approval by the assembly, they said that cabinet members have yet to take oath. After that an excuse of portfolio allocation was made. Now they say that the release policy is to be approved,” he said.

He expressed his optimism that the government would release the interim grant in a couple of days and they would be able to give wages to the current and former employees of the university.

He said the quarterly grant from Higher Education Commission (HEC) would be released in the third week of April next. “The HEC grant gives a grant of Rs930 million to the university for recurring expenditure. From 2002 to 2019, the HEC grant used to be increased by 10 percent on a yearly basis. But in 2019 not only the grant was capped but it was reduced by 5-6 percent due to which the economic miseries of the universities have multiplied,” he said.

He said they were confronting the issue of increase in salaries and reduction in the HEC grant. “Salaries have increased manifold during the past few years, while the HEC grant has decreased. The recent increase in salaries has left an impact of Rs240 million on Agriculture University,” Dr Jan Bakht said.

Regarding the own revenue of the institution, he said that the university’s indigenous revenue had gone up from Rs650 million to Rs1,100 million since he took charge as vice-chancellor. “We generate 60 percent of our expenditure. For the remaining 40 percent we have to run from pillar to post,” he said.

A major burden of the oldest universities was the pension. “We pay nearly Rs600 million as pensions per year,” he pointed out.