PUTA seeks early payment of full salaries to employees

PESHAWAR: Demanding early payment of salaries to the employees, Peshawar University Teachers Association (PUTA) on Wednesday asked the university administration under which law full salary was not being paid for the month of January.

PUTA president Dr Fazle Nasir said that the association had already sent a letter to the university administration and was waiting for the response. “We want to give enough time to the university administration before announcing a future line of action. We are concerned about the precious time of the students who have already suffered due to the long closure of the university,” he said.

The PUTA chief, through the letter, demanded the university administration to provide the association legal justification for payment of the partial salary.

The letter also stated that the Higher Education Commission (HEC) had credited a significant amount to the university account. “PUTA demands that the University of Peshawar should state when exactly the remaining salary for the month of January will be paid to the employees so that the association could work out a strategy in case of non-payment of the salary,” the letter added.

It was learnt that HEC has released Rs346 million to the University of Peshawar, but the administration was trying to delay the payment of salaries to the employees. A senior officer of the university said that the university management believed that the funds were meant for the salary of March.

“But what will we do until March. This is a strange justification,” said an employee of the university. The non-teaching lower scale staff of the university has been passing through the most serious situation as they have not been able to get even a partial salary.

The Registrar of the university had told The News in a previous conversation that the admissions in different programmes of the university were in progress from which they would collect a substantial amount to pay salaries for at least two or three months. “But now the HEC has released a handsome amount to the university and still the university is unable to pay full salaries,” argued another officer.