Federation of All Pakistan University Academic Staff Association (Fapuasa) has demanded an increase in the salaries and other allowances of the university teachers, replacement of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) chief and a 75 per cent increase in the tax cut of the university research funds – threatening to boycott online classes if their demands are not fulfilled till June 30.
According to details, Fapuasa, a representative body of public sectors universities’ faculty, issued a statement on Wednesday where they proposed several demands and threatened to boycott online classes if their demands are not met. The statement was issued after a video conference of Fapuasa’s executive committee.
The federation demanded that the experience requirement for the promotion of university faculty members must be extended by five years after PhD. They demanded that the HEC’s new research general policy notification must be withdrawn and that the other problems confronting the teachers must be resolved.
Fapuasa threatened that if their demands are not fulfilled, they will boycott not only the online classes but also HEC’s other policies and will resort to protests if needed.
In the online conference, the federation leaders accused the HEC chief and his ‘incapable’ team of discouraging the research environment and demanded that the incumbent HEC chairman be replaced with a more pragmatic substitute – not with a bureaucrat or a judge.
Fapuasa also said that any attempt by the government to curtail the autonomy of universities will lead to mass protests and resistance. They also said that HEC has failed to secure the required share of the education departments in the recent budget. Fapuasa claimed that the impecunious universities cannot pay the salaries of their staff.
In Balochistan, HEC’s initiative of online classes was met with criticism by the Baloch students. The indignant students organised protests in various cities, set up hunger strike camps and launched social campaigns against online classes. The students said that they did not have the required internet facilities which barred them from attending online classes. The campaigners termed this initiative as an act of ‘animosity with education’ and a source to extort unjust fee from the students