PhD-holders protest outside PM’s residence

Burn copies of degrees, go home on assurances from PM’s secretariat

ISLAMABAD: Dozens of desperate and unemployed doctorate degree holders staged a protest outside the residence of Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday, demanding jobs in line with their high qualifications.

The demonstrators claimed that despite holding the ultimate postgraduate degree of Doctorate in Philosophy (PhD), they were still unemployed and that both, the government and the Higher Education Commissions (HEC) had failed to resolve their issues.

The demonstration ended after two representatives of the protesters were invited to the Prime Minister Secretariat, where officials assured the unemployed degree-holders of resolving their issues.



PhD holders from across the country had converged outside the sprawling Bani Gala mansion of the prime minister following a call from their representative body, the PhD Association.

The demonstrators carried placards and banners with their demands inscribed on them. They tried to head towards the PM’s residence but were stopped at the Imran Khan Chowk.

In protest, they blocked the road and raised anti-government and anti-HEC slogans.

The demonstrators also attempted to block the prime minister’s protocol squad.

As a result, a verbal spat ensued between some locals and the protesters.

The doctorate holders told Daily Express that they had been forced to pour into the streets owing to persistent unemployment.

They said that while the HEC had made them sign five-year bonds to stay and work in the country upon completing their expensive higher-learning programme. They said that initially, the HEC gave them year-long placements on projects.

When they could not show sufficient performance, owing to the time constraints, they were not assigned other projects.

The doctorate degree-holders said besides failing to deliver on HEC projects, they were unable to find any other employment.

The association claimed that as many as 764 PhD holders registered with them were currently unemployed and demanded jobs in the higher education sector. They pointed out that owing to the mushroom growth of universities in the country, there was a high demand for PhDs to run various higher educational programmes, however, it seems they have been ignored for positions there.

In this regard, the association said past negotiations with the HEC had proved to be useless.

The key demands of the protesting scholars were to adjust all unemployed PhDs in suitable jobs on an urgent basis, the creation of jobs for fresh PhDs, especially in non-teaching institutions. PhDs who are working in non-teaching institutes on low scales must be promoted to scales which match their qualifications and to implement proper rules and regulations in private universities.

Earlier, a demand and agenda paper was also issued by the unemployed PhDs, which said that as many as 36,000 PhDs were required in universities across the country with a further 60,000 PhDs required across Pakistan in other institutions. However, despite this shortage, the previous governments had provided jobs to only 700 PhDs.

“The authorities concerned were responsible for this situation,” the scholars said.



The scholars also demanded that salaries for PhDs in the private sector should be made equal to the Tenure Track System (TTS) salary.

Furthermore, they demanded that the rule of a retired person not holding any administrative post similar to that in the public sector should also be implemented in private universities.

They vowed to continue their protest until their due rights were granted. The demonstrators also set a banner inscribed with the letters HEC and photocopies of their degrees on fire.

According to official sources, the PM’s Special Assistant for Political Affairs Naeemul Haq invited two representatives into the secretariat and assured the unemployed PhD scholars that their demands for jobs will be reviewed.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 9^th, 2018.