PESHAWAR: The teaching and non-teaching staff of the University of Peshawar (UoP) on Thursday announced to launch a complete strike from Monday next after accusing the university administration and the provincial government of turning deaf ear to their genuine demands.
The employees were already on protest and they had set a one-week deadline for the government and the university administration to accept their 16 demands. The deadline would expire on Sunday.
UoP Vice-Chancellor Dr Mohammad Idrees had issued a detailed statement to the media instead of sitting with the protesting employees wherein he had claimed to have already accepted almost all the demands and there was no justification of strike or protest.
The protesting employees rejected the claims of the university administration as baseless and announced to go on complete strike.
The decision of complete boycott was taken at the meeting of the Joint Action Committee comprising Peshawar University Teachers Association (PUTA), Class-III and Class-IV employees.
Besides the elected representatives of PUTA, Class-III and Class-IV associations, the meeting was also attended by provincial president of Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association Prof Dr Shah Alam and president of All Universities Employees Federation, Haji Salahuddin.
It was decided at the meeting that no teaching and administrative matters would be dealt with at the University of Peshawar from Monday onward.
According to PUTA President Dr Jamil Ahmad Chitrali, the employees have been protesting in a democratic manner and they have repeatedly raised the problems faced by the university employees with authorities concerned. “But no step has yet been taken to overcome the problems faced by them,” he said.
The quarters concerned, including Chancellor Shah Farman, provincial government and administration of the university, remained unmoved to resolve their problems.
The Joint Action Committee had decided on Friday last that the teachers, class-III and Class-IV employees of the University of Peshawar would observe token strike from Monday to Friday from 12 noon to 4pm and the university administration.
