KARACHI:
The 2nd CHRCD (Centre for Human Resource and Career Development) International Conference, held July 19–22 at the University of Peshawar’s Bara Gali campus, was a celebration of scholarship — researchers and educationists from across Pakistan exchanging ideas amid pine forests and cool mountain air, a reminder of why universities endure as centres of intellectual life.
Yet the conference could not escape the shadow it was held in. Even as scholars deliberated on research and innovation, the professors and employees who sustain that scholarship have gone unpaid — salaries and pensions withheld for three consecutive months. An institution cannot claim distinction while its own scholars remain uncertain of their next pay cheque.
As a research scholar, I found this unsettling. Conferences project the image of a thriving institution, but credibility is written not in conference halls rather in how an institution treats its own people. Scholarship flourishes where scholars are paid what they are owed, when they are owed it. This crisis demands more than temporary relief. Any mismanagement of funds must be investigated, and employees — teachers, staff, pensioners — must be paid.
Manzar Hassan
Peshawar
