November 16, 2006	Thursday	Shawwal 23, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Nov 15: The confusion over the government’s decision to grant one-grade promotion to university teachers could not be removed, as both teachers’ elected bodies and the Higher Education Commission stick to their positions.

Teachers want the implementation of the decision across the board, whereas the government insists that a criterion should be met for promotion into next grade.

This year on Salam Teachers Day (October 6), Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz addressing a gathering announced that salary structure of the teachers working at seats of higher learning had been revised with one-grade promotion.

Now a lecturer will be inducted in Basic Pay Scale (BPS) 18 instead of 17, and assistant professors, associate professors, and professors will work in BPS-19, 20, and 21, respectively.

When contacted, HEC Chairman Dr Attaur Rehman said that he had already written to the vice-chancellors along with the criterion to be followed.

“There will not be automatic promotions, instead cases would be presented to the selection boards or academic councils for considerations and it will be up to the respective universities that whether they provide some relaxation or not,” he said.

When quizzed, he said they (selection board or academic councils) could endorse a certain case conditionally that within a certain time period, he/she would improve his/her qualifications.

The HEC has revised the recruitment criteria for university teachers. For lecturers, an appointee must have first class master’s degree in the relevant field with no third division in his/her academic career.

At associate professor level, an applicant must have eight publications with at least two publications in the last two years in internationally abstracted journals recognised by the HEC.

In the case of professors, they must have 12 publications to their name with at least three publications in the last five years and 15 research publications as well with at least five publications in internationally abstracted journals recognised by the HEC. This criteria will remain in effect until September 2008.

Likewise, the effective date for the upgradation of each post would be with effect from the date the higher grade is actually filled in by the eligible person in the prescribed manner.

Officials at the HEC wanted that the same criteria should be followed for the implementation of the post upgradation. Whereas, Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Associations (FAPUASA) insisted that the decision should be implemented across the board.

Quaid-i-Azam University ASA president Dr Mohammad Ishaq said the federation was trying to get the decision implemented across the board and would not agree less than that.