University staff demand 50% of their salaries

The government must release funds immediately so that the universities can resolve the employees' problems.

JAMSHORO: The vice-chancellors of six universities in Sindh are supporting their universities’ employees and faculty members, who have demanded an ad hoc payment of 50 per cent of their salaries.

The government must release funds immediately so that the universities can resolve the problems of the employees and faculty members. This recommendation was unanimously made by the vice-chancellors at a meeting hosted by the Liaquat University of Medial and Health Sciences (LUMHS) late Wednesday evening.

The meeting was presided over by Karachi University vice-chancellor professor Dr Pirzada Qasim Raza Siddiqui and was attended by Sindh University vice-chancellor professor Dr Nazir A Mughal, Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam vice-chancellor professor Dr AQ Mughal, Mehran University of Engineering Technology vice-chancellor Dr AQK Rajput, Quaid-e-Awam University of Engineering Science and Technology Nawabshah vice-chancellor Dr AB Soomro, LUMHS vice-chancellor Dr Noushad Ahmed Shaikh and LUMHS registrar Muhammad Saleh Rajar, among others.

The vice-chancellors expressed their concern over the non payment of 50 per cent of their employees’ salaries, which, they claimed, has resulted in unrest at their universities.

They decided to hold a meeting with the Sindh governor - who is also the chancellor of all the universities across the province - and established a two-member committee which is to meet the chancellor’s secretariat and fix a date for a meeting with the governor.

While discussing the financial constraints faced by the universities, the vice-chancellors also decided to increase the number of admissions under the self-finance scheme and to launch more evening degree programmes to generate funds.

Over the next six months, the universities will also freeze new appointments and will cut their expenditures on computers, air conditioners, the repair of their buildings and the financial reviews regarding overtime and allowances.

In efforts to help flood survivors, the universities will also deduct a day’s salaries of Grade-17 employees and above on a voluntary basis. The vice-chancellors also visited relief camps set up within the premises of the LUMHS at the occasion.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 20^th, 2010.