July 15, 2003	Tuesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 14, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, July 14: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) is working on a plan to enhance salaries of teachers working in public sector universities to bring it on a par with private sector educational institutions, reliable sources told Dawn.

In this regard, a series of meetings are being held between the finance ministry and HEC officials, however, the former is showing reluctance to accept the proposal.

A similar meeting was due to be held on Monday, however, owing to unavailability of the concerned finance ministry officials it had been postponed.

Under the plan, the sources said, the teachers would be given maximum incentives like the private sector so that they could be encouraged to work in the government universities.

After the promulgation of Model University Ordinance by President Pervez Musharraf, tenure-track service structure was to be implemented in the government-run universities whereby teachers would be offered contractual jobs.

However, in the face of strong opposition by the existing regular teachers, the HEC has decided to introduce a uniform service structure under the new law with enhanced salaries, the sources added.

With the setting up of higher education institutions in the private sector since mid 90s, qualified teachers prefer to teach in the private universities owing to hefty pay packages.

When contacted, a senior faculty member of the Quaid-i-Azam University said the measure was being taken for quite a number of reasons. Over the last few years, majority of PhDs in public sector universities either had gone abroad for better future or had joined private sector owing to attractive service structures, he added.

Furthermore, he said, most of the teachers working in government-run universities were employed by private educational institutions on part-time basis.

In reply to a question, he said PhD degree holders in international universities were considered well-off people but got only Rs5,000 as additional PhD allowance in Pakistan.