Petition regarding university teachers’ promotion policy accepted by SC for hearing

Islamabad : The Supreme Court of Pakistan has admitted a writ petition regarding lacking the service structure of teachers in public sector universities across the country. The petition has been filed by APUBTA, All Public Universities BPS Teachers Association (APUBTA) through its President Dr Sami Ur Rahman. The petitioner, APU­BTA, is an association which represents the interests of almost 50,000 BPS teachers who are presently imparting higher education to around 2 million pupils studying in around 150 public sector universities of Pakistan. While talking, the GS APUBTA Dr Imtiaz Ahmad provided the following details of the filed writ petition.

The petition, moved through Advocate Umer Ijaz Gillani, highlights that the university teachers are facing severe issues of lack of service structure that is violation of the basic rights, and the HEC ordinance. The petition is being filed in the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of Pakistan under Article 184(3).

The controversy relates to the failure of Higher Education Commission (HEC) to implement Section 10(1)(c) and (q) of the Higher Education Commission Ordinance, 2002 (the 'Ordinance) as a result of which the Basic Pay Scale (BPS) Teachers of Pakistan suffer from the lack of a promotion policy for them, in stark contrast to a comprehensive mechanism of appointments and promotion for the Tenure Track System (TTS) Teachers. This is a violation of Section 10(1)(c) and (q) of the Ordinance, which mandates HEC to ensure a clear career path to teachers without discrimination.

The petitioner wishes to bring the notice of this Honorable Court a shocking fact about Pakistan’s public sector universities which is detrimentally affecting the quality of education there: the vast majority of teachers who teach in Pakistan public sector universities (93.5%), also known as BPS teachers, have been provided with absolutely no promotion channel whatsoever. This means that the vast bulk of university teachers who joined academia as lecturers will retire as lecturers even after decades of service; those few who joined as Assistant Professors also will also retire as such, unless they manage to get a fresh appointment. They will never ever have the opportunity to be 'considered for promotion.' It’s a classic case of a dead-end career structure. In fact, this is also a derogation from the Establishment Division’s Draft 'Standard Format of Service Rules in Respect of Autonomous Bodies' which expressly provides for an appointment and promotion criteria under Rules 13-15. These Standard Service Rules are applicable to all public-sector universities; unfortunately, in adding to the list of HEC’s omissions, these Standard Service Rules have never been applied to the public-sector universities.

To rectify this arbitrary discrimination, the Petitioner, i.e. the All Public Universities BPS Teachers Association (APU­BTA) had a meeting with the HEC Chairman on 20.10.2020. During that meeting, it was agreed that APUBTA would provide HEC with a Draft Promotion Policy for BPS Teacher, which would then be reviewed and refined by the HEC. This work was to be completed in 3 months. Sadly, HEC did not fulfill its commitment.

The petitioners has most humbly prayed that the Honourable Court may kindly Direct Respondent the HEC to secures the right of around two (2) million students studying in public sector universities to enjoy the tutelage of highly motivated and appropriately incentivized teachers and to notify a Promotion Policy for appointments and promotions of BPS Teachers, and to ensure due regard to the inter se seniority of the BPS and the TTS Faculty by framing the aforementioned BPS Faculty’s Promotion Rules.