University employees call off protest after assurance by govt

PESHAWAR: The teaching fraternity and other employees of the public sector universities on Monday suspended their protest drive and boycott for one week after the assurance of the provincial government that it would take concrete steps to solve all their problems.

“We are taking the decision in the larger interest of the students and the universities so that academic activities could resume and progress could be made towards the resolution of the problems faced by the universities and the employees,” said the head of the Joint Action Committee and Provincial President Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (FAPUASA).

The protesting employees had actually reached some consensus with the Special Assistant to Chief Minister Kamran Khan Bangash on Sunday night to call off their protest. Kamran Bangash in a video message had stated that the teachers protest had been called off and had assured to solve the problems of the protesting employees.

Meanwhile, the central leadership of the FAPUASA visited the protest camp and addressed a crowded press conference. The delegation comprised of central president of the association Prof Nek Mohammad Sheikh, central vice-president Dr Fazle Nasir, FAPUASA Punjab president Prof Abdul Sattar Malik, Balochistan president Mohammad Kaleem Bareech, Islamabad president Dr Ashfaq Khosa and others.

The FAPUASA central president warned the federal and provincial governments over the financial crisis faced by the four major universities on the greater campus in Peshawar. He said that if the government failed to increase the frozen budget for universities from Rs64 billion to Rs100 billion, the universities would continue to face severe problems and higher education would be adversely affected.

The representative expressed his astonishment that during the past three years of the current rule, the overall volume of the budget has swollen to Rs8000 billion from Rs5300 billion, but the budget for higher education had been decreased massively instead of increase during the same period.

He also took exception to the police action against university professors and urged the provincial governor and chief minister to order a judicial inquiry of the incident and an unconditional apology should be rendered to the professors.

The FAPUASA office- bearer said that it was good that the employees have given a one-week time to the government to make progress towards acceptance of their demands. But if the government failed to take concrete steps, the protest would be extended to all the universities across the country, for which the government would be responsible.He said the HED letter to universities should not be merely suspended but cancelled.