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| Teachers protest for non-payment of salary: We are forced to hold the feet of the Balochistan government |
"We are suffering because of non-payment of fees, but the most painful aspect is that our children are being punished because due to non-payment of fees, they are being discriminated against in schools and colleges in front of other children. Fear is being faced.'
This is why the teacher of Balochistan University, Dr. Abida Baloch, has not received a salary for three months like other teachers and employees of the university.
The teachers and employees of the university have been in a protest for the last 10 days against non-payment of salaries, as a result of which academic activities in the university have been suspended.
Meanwhile, the teachers and employees made a unique protest and collected donations symbolically and also installed vegetable carts.
President of the University Academic Staff Association, Dr. Kalimullah Barich, told the BBC that teachers and employees have been protesting for salaries every two to three months for the past three years, but the vice-chancellor of the university, Dr. Shafiqur Rehman, says that The university is facing a financial crisis, due to which teachers and employees are not being paid salaries.
He said that 'due to the financial crisis, we are forced to hold the feet of the Balochistan government and are asking them to give us money and get us out of this crisis.'
Ayesha Ikram, spokesperson of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) regarding the financial crisis of the university, said that the financial grant including salaries for the third quarter has been sent to the University of Balochistan, while the grant for the fourth quarter will be released soon.
The spokesman said that as far as the employees of the university are concerned, it is an internal administrative matter of the university, but there was no delay in the release of funds by the Higher Education Commission.
On the other hand, Farah Azim Shah, spokesperson of the Balochistan government, says that it will be an effort of the Balochistan government to reduce the financial difficulties of the university.
Our children are kept in classes due to non-payment of fees.
Dr. Abida Baloch says that 'in the current back-breaking inflation, if we do not get our salary for one month, there will be a disaster in the house, but our salaries have been stopped for the last three months.'
Similarly, pensioners are also facing difficulties. One of our former employees suffered a heart attack and died. Due to not getting salaries in this inflation, there is a fear that our employees may not suffer from psychological problems.
He said that an employee and his family have to pay house rent, electricity, and gas bills, medical expenses in case of illness, and above all children's education expenses from the salary. are.'
He said that 'due to non-payment of fees, our children are kept in classes due to which our children have to face humiliation in front of other classmates.'
The president of the academic staff association of the university, Dr. Kalimullah Balich, said, "This is not the first time that we are protesting, but for the last three years, every two to three months, teachers and employees have to protest for salaries."
Dr. Kaleemullah said that "expenses increase in Ramadan, but our salaries are not being paid while Eid is also coming."
He said that the Balochistan government has kept a grant of only two and a half billion rupees annually for the provincial universities, which is equivalent to cumin in the camel's mouth.
He said that the funds allocated for the universities by the federal government are very less.
"For all the public sector universities of Pakistan, the central government has allocated only 102 billion rupees from the annual budget of ten thousand billion rupees, which is negligible."
Suspension of academic activities and unique protests in the university
The teachers and employees of the university are not only protesting every day against non-payment of salaries but academic activities have been completely suspended for more than 10 days due to the lockdown in the university.
During the protest, the teachers and employees kept collecting donations for the university holding small boxes in their hands, and a few also symbolically set vegetable carts for their expenses.
Teachers and employees marched with donation boxes and protested in front of the Balochistan Assembly.
Dr. Kaleemullah said that we went to the assembly with the hope that the government would listen to us, but despite the meeting, no member of the government even came to meet us. The Minister of Education did not even bother to come.
Speaking to the BBC, Ulusmina, a fourth-semester student of the sociology department at the university, said that "classes have not been held in the university for the past several days, due to which the valuable time of the students is being lost."
She said that since I joined the university, I have seen that every two months the university employees have to protest for their salaries and they get their salaries only after the protest.
Ulsumina appealed to the federal and Balochistan governments to ensure the timely payment of salaries to the teachers and employees of the university so that the valuable time of the students is not wasted.
He said that teachers and employees should not face any problems for a better educational environment in the university.
"Payment of salaries is not possible due to financial crisis"
Regarding the non-payment of salaries, when the vice-chancellor of the university, Professor Dr. Shafiqur Rehman, was contacted, he said that the university was facing a financial crisis at the time. Due to this, the payment of salaries is not possible.
He said that 'one thing, the grant from the federal government has been reduced, while the Balochistan government receives a grant of only fifty crores of rupees annually.'
He said that the number of teachers and employees of the university is around 1600, whose salaries and pensions of ex-employees have to be paid Rs. 23 crores per month.
He said that the university has four campuses with which a total number of students of 16,800.
"Since this is a public sector university and the students studying in it belong to poor families, we charge them a modest fee which is only Rs. 9,000 per semester."
The annual grant we get from both governments is one and a half billion rupees, compared to which we have to pay two billion 76 crore rupees in the form of salary and pension, while the rest of the expenses are apart from this.
"The fact is in front of you how quickly the prices of oil, electricity, and gas are increasing and these costs have increased tremendously compared to the past."
"The government is meeting its expenses by increasing the price of oil and electricity every month, but we cannot increase the fees every month because the students here cannot pay more fees." Last year when the floods hit, we even had to waive the fees of students belonging to the affected areas.
The Vice-Chancellor said that due to many factors, there is a big gap between the income and expenditure of the university due to which the crisis has become serious.
He said that out of the annual grant of one billion that the Higher Education Commission gives us, we have not received 35 crore rupees yet.
To a question, he said that this year we got a bailout package of Rs. Otherwise, the university will not be in a position to pay five months' salary to the employees during the current financial year.
Dr. Shafiqur Rahman said that 170 employees also retired in the last three years "whose commutations cost crores of rupees, which further increased our expenses."
He said that 'due to the seriousness of the financial crisis, we are forced to hold the feet of the Balochistan government to give us money and get us out of this crisis.'
Position of Balochistan Government
Farah Azim Shah, the spokesperson of the Balochistan government, said that the resources of the Balochistan government are limited, but despite this, efforts are being made to help Balochistan University and other educational institutions as much as possible.
"Due to not getting a share under the NFC award, the Balochistan government faced financial difficulties for some time, so a delegation of ministers made a special visit to Islamabad, due to which some funds were received from the federation."
Farah Azim Shah said that the Higher Education Commission should give more attention to the universities, but it seems that the Higher Education Commission has pulled its hand.
He said that no structure has been created by the university to increase its income, but the Balochistan government will make an effort to reduce the financial difficulties of the university.
Chief Minister Balochistan's spokesperson Babar Yusuf said that some time ago the teachers and employees of the university protested and the government released Rs 30 crore to the university.
He said that he still met the teachers and staff and requested them to end the protest so that the valuable time of the students would not be wasted.