All KP universities’ staff will get a twenty percent pay raise. This was decided in meeting chaired by Chief Secretary KP Ghulam Dastagir and participated by the vice chancellors of various universities in the province. The pay raise came after over a long strike by the lecturers and other staff of all the universities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The struggle to get the increase had started soon after the federal and provincial governments announced the hike in the salaries of their employees and also started payment of it. The administrations of various universities were dragging their feet on the issues and expressing inability to give the announced raise to their staff.
The reason that they gave for the inability was the bad financial conditions of all the universities because of the reduction in the their funds from the Higher Education Commission.
The strike by the teachers and the administration staff of the universities not only disturbed the examination schedules of the students but also affected their studies.
Many now wonder that if the universities and the provincial government had to ultimately agree to the demand, why did they refused to do so earlier and saved the student’s precious study time.
Many also say that the prolonged strike and the absence of teachers from classes also affected the scholarly atmosphere of these universities. All this could have been avoided, had the government and VCs acted early and given due importance to the issue.
