A court on Tuesday suspended an order of the International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) in which it had frozen the allowances of 64 lecturers and sought reply from the university administration on the issue.
Chief Justice Iqbal Hameedur Rehman of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) suspended the notification issued by university administration early this year, issued notices to the IIUI rector and board chairman asking them to submit their comments by September 20.
Management Sciences lecturer Syed Naveed Altaf, Assistant Mathematics Professor Dr Muhammad Arshad, and 62 other lecturers had moved the petition challenging the notification.
Advocate Muhammad Shoaib Shaheen on behalf of the petitioners said that the IIUI administration had issued a notification on February 2 stating that the allowances of lecturers would be suspended from September 1, 2012.
He argued before the court that the special allowance was linked with the basic pay of regular faculty members and its abolition is unfair. He said the decision would cost lecturers between Rs20,000 and Rs55,000 per month.
The counsel maintained that the petitioners are regular employees who were appointed on different positions with proper terms and conditions including regular pay and allowances after fulfilling all requirements.
He informed the court that neither any opportunity was given to the petitioners to argue in their defence, nor were any show-cause notices served on them. He accused the university administration of indulging in “exploitation” of the lecturers who are being denied something that was agreed upon before their hiring.
He claimed that his clients had approached the university administration soon after the issuance of the notification, but their concerns were not addressed, leaving the only option to move the courts to address their complaint.
After the preliminary hearing, the court issued the orders and adjourned the case till September 20.
The university has been in the spotlight for quite some time due to reports of misappropriation and other charges. Last week, IIUI became the first seat of higher education to be investigated by the National Accountability Bureau after misappropriations were detected in the university’s transport department.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 29th, 2012.
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What a shameful act of the university administration!!!! I personally think that the rector, president, director finance and director HR may be penalized for such a heinous crime. The administration of this university is palying their cards using the name of Islam. Every un-islamic and unethical act is being promoted by the administration.