March 18, 2008	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 9, 1429

RAWALPINDI, March 17: The Punjab Teachers and Lecturers Association (PPLA) on Monday threatened to boycott upcoming annual intermediate examinations if their demands are not met immediately.

According to a press release issued by Punjab Professors and Lecturers Association (PPLA), the teachers held a meeting in Gordon College and decided if their demands were not met in recent future, they would boycott the coming annual examination of intermediate level in Punjab.

PPLA Rawalpindi President Muhammad Ilyas Qureshi talking to Dawn said the teachers were demanding immediate promotion of the lecturers who were inducted in 1987 and were working in the same Basic Pay Scale (BPS) 17, introduction of a regular time scale for the promotion of the college teachers, end of three percent deduction of benevolent fund from the monthly salaries, an additional annul increment this year and one scale up-gradation of the college lecturers.

He said it was pity that the teachers who were inducted in BPS 17 in 1987 were still in the same grade and drawing their salaried in the same grade whereas their students and gone to higher grades in other departments causing restlessness among the college teachers.

The PPLA president said seniority time frame was applicable in every other department than the education department of Punjab. It was in the absence of such time scale that no promotion had been made in the department.

He also said three per cent benevolent fund deduction was unjust as the federal government was deducting only one percent of the monthly salaries as the benevolent fund.—A Reporter