LAHORE: Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (FAPUASA) Punjab has decided to launch a protest movement against the Higher Education Department (HED) and the Punjab government with the help of all the teaching and non-teaching organizations of public sector universities.
In a press statement issued Sunday, the FAPUASA Punjab General Secretary Dr. Ahtisham Ali said that HED Punjab was trying to obstruct the autonomy of public sector universities and depriving them of their basic rights. He said in the struggle and the negotiation process for special/disparity allowance by FAPUASA Punjab, it had been absolutely clear that the special allowance must be issued from June 1, 2021, after the approval of the Cabinet Committee. That was why in the minutes of the meeting issued on November 15, 2021, the release date of this allowance for the universities was mentioned as June 1, which was in line with the demand of all public sector universities. Now suddenly HED has rendered the date of issuance of allowance conditional to the date of approval from the Punjab governor through an explanatory letter written to the Finance Department.
It needs to be highlighted that after the FAPUASA efforts, the Punjab government has permitted universities to give 25% special allowance to universities but during this struggle, HED has played a controversial role and made every effort to curb the autonomy of the universities by misusing their powers.
