Deadlock persists: university teachers to continue sit-in outside HEC office

ISLAMABAD: A significant number of university teachers belonging to the Basic Pay Scale (BPS) have declared their intent to extend their protest sit-in outside the offices of the Higher Education Commission (HEC).

Their decision is grounded in HEC’s alleged failure to address their long-standing demands, particularly relating to promotions.

On Tuesday, educators from various universities across Pakistan converged outside the HEC office to demand the concerns of the All Public Universities BPS Teachers’ Association (APUBTA).

They emphasized the written agreement inked between the HEC, APUBTA, and FAPUASA (Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association) regarding a promotion policy for BPS teachers employed in public sector universities within Pakistan.

Leaders of APUBTA alleged that HEC Chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmed declined to meet with their representatives, leaving their genuine demands unaddressed.

They said that even though local authorities attempted to mediate and facilitate discussions between HEC officials and APUBTA leadership, Dr Ahmed remained obstinate and refused to engage with their delegation.

Dr Manzoor Ahmad, the Media Secretary of APUBTA, said that their sit-in protest would continue until the issuance of an official notification approving the promotion policy and service structure for BPS teachers, as promised by the HEC.

He elaborated that while the assistant commissioner-led local administration aimed to initiate talks between HEC officials and APUBTA leadership, the HEC chairman resisted engagement. Instead, he dispatched two officials for discussions.

“These officials conveyed their powerlessness despite their sympathetic disposition toward the teaching community’s demands, rendering the negotiations inconclusive,” he said.

Dr Manzoor Ahmad pointed out that the HEC has a transparent policy concerning Tenure Track System (TTS) teachers. However, the promotion and service structure for BPS teachers, constituting nearly 90% of university faculties, have remained unresolved for several years. Despite the HEC’s commitment to devise a policy for promoting BPS teachers, they have failed to fulfill this pledge, he said.

Dr Mansoor Ahmad claimed that junior TTS teachers, many of whom were taught by BPS teachers, have been promoted to the 22-scale, while BPS teachers have been neglected.

Although the HEC has verbally instructed universities to address the promotion issue for BPS teachers, many universities have disregarded these directives.

He criticized the HEC chairman’s approach, alleging that his actions have caused divisions within the teaching community and led to confrontations between educators and vice-chancellors, as well as university administrations. Dr Manzoor Ahmad called upon the federal government, especially the prime minister and the minister of education, to take notice of the “irresponsible behavior of the HEC chairman.”

Talking to HUM News Engllish, HEC Chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmed defended the HEC’s efforts, stating that the commission has engaged in numerous meetings with university vice-chancellors, urging them to implement HEC directives concerning the promotion and service structure for BPS teachers. He acknowledged that several universities have complied with these directives. However, he stressed that the HEC cannot dictate to universities to promote all teachers simultaneously.

Dr Mukhtar Ahmed emphasized that the promotion issue of BPS teachers is often associated with provincial universities and falls under the purview of provincial Higher Education Commissions. Provinces also fund these universities, and therefore, the HEC cannot compel provinces to promote every teacher, given their individual financial constraints, he said.

Regarding the lack of a clear-cut service structure and promotion policy for BPS teachers, Dr Mukhtar Ahmed clarified that teachers who fail to meet HEC’s established criteria for promotions have raised objections, while the majority of BPS teachers who meet these criteria have been promoted.

He explained that the HEC’s new policy mandates that a lecturer without an MPhil and PhD degree cannot be promoted.

Dr Mukhtar Ahmed emphasized that the HEC will adhere to established criteria for promotions and service structures, reiterating that teachers’ ineligible for promotion based on qualifications and service length cannot be elevated solely due to protests and sit-ins.

Earlier, the All Public Universities BPS Teachers Association (APUBTA) staged a sit-in outside the HEC headquarters in Islamabad, highlighting the denial of promotion rights to university BPS teachers. They cited HEC’s failure, since its inception in 2002, to formulate criteria and guidelines for the promotion of BPS university teachers, a responsibility assigned to the HEC by Section 10(q) of the HEC Ordinance 2002. Despite over two decades since its inception, the HEC has not fulfilled this obligation.

The APUBTA said that it has been actively advocating for the promotion-related concerns of university teachers for the past three years. It said their discussions with HEC officials resulted in four written agreements/commitments signed between HEC and APUBTA leadership on October 20, 2020, October 14, 2021, March 10, 2022, and July 24, 2023. Each of these commitments included a pledge to approve and notify the promotion policy and service structure for BPS university teachers within 2-3 months.

“Despite these agreements, APUBTA claimed that HEC officials reneged on their commitments, violated directives from parliamentary committees, and neglected promises made to FAPUASA. Three months have passed since the last written commitment, but the HEC has yet to convene a meeting for the approval of the promotion policy for BPS university teachers,” it said.

A press release from FAPUASA said, “About three months have passed since HEC gave its last written commitment to APUBTA and FAPUASA on the subject but yet the meeting of the commission has not been called for approval of the promotion policy for BPS university teachers.”