ISLAMABAD: Prompted by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government decided to regularize thousands of teachers following their protest outside former prime minister Imran Khan’s house in Islamabad, the contractual employees of public sector universities in the province have also gathered in Bani Gala to demand regularization of their jobs.
A day after the thousands of young teachers who got regularized after a protest outside Khan’s house on Wednesday, the university employees have decided to camp outside the Bani Gala house until their demands accepted.
Talking to media, Secretary Information All Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Universities Contract Employees Association (AKPUCEA) Dr Latif Shinwari claimed that there were at least 8000 teaching and non-teaching contractual employees of the universities waiting for regularization for years.
Of the contractual employees, he said, every university had about 30 PhD degree-holders who had been in the job for the past about 13 years and still waiting for regularization.
The thousands of teaching and non-teaching employees of 28 public sector universities in the province have now decided to protest for their rights, pattern on such a case in Punjab was addressed by the former PTI government in the province in April 2019.
“Only representatives of 28 universities are here now but in the coming days, in case the issues remain unresolved, thousands of employees both from men and women universities would gather outside Imran Khan’s house in Islamabad,” Shinwari said.
In a written demand made to Imran Khan, Chairman of ruling party in KP (PTI) the association has informed that KPK and Punjab Assemblies had imposed a restriction that there will be no extension in the contracts of the contract employees beyond 3 years. But instead of relieving their employees, both KP and Punjab assemblies passed “Regulation of Services Act” in 2018, to save the services rendered by contract employees in both provinces. On the basis of this act, all contract employees (other than universities’ employees) were regularized both in KP and Punjab. The exclusion of university employees from regularization caused panic and unrest among the contract employees of both Punjab and KP universities. In 2019 Contract Employees crisis in Punjab was however solved in response to a complaint lodged in Pakistan Citizen Portal by Punjab universities contract employees. “As there is a set precedent, we humbly appeal that all universities of KP also adopt the KPK Regularization Act 2018 as a policy in the same as the Punjab government did two years ago,” the employees said in the letter.
The protesting employees at Bani Gala said that unfortunately some of the universities in KP had sacked the contractual employees. Many of the employees were unable to get fresh jobs due to age factor and they had no other source of income.
Since the public sector universities are practically left at the mercy of vice chancellors, the employees had been left with the only option to launch a protest campaign for acceptance of their demand
They demanded the provincial government to implement The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Employees (Regularization of Services) Act, 2018, saying that after the approval of 18th Amendment it was the duty of the provinces to resolve such issues.
Earlier former minister of Kashmir Affairs and leader of PTI Ali Amin Gandapur, while addressing the protesting employee, assured that since the contractual employees of public sector universities in Punjab have been regularized, the same would be adopted in KP. “We have clear precedence and examples of regularization in similar cases in Punjab. The Government of KP would also consider your case,” he assured.
Meanwhile Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (FAPUASA) KPK has also postponed its planned protest in Bani Gala on Wednesday after a meeting with minister of higher education KP Kamran Bangash, who als assured the organization about resolution of their issues.
