PESHAWAR, Sept 26: The teachers of public sector universities called off their strike on Monday after governor directed the vice-chancellors to implement the decision of government about 15 per cent increase in their salaries.

The governor asked the vice-chancellors to implement the government decision, announced in June this year, about 15 per cent raise in the salaries of teachers of universities and their affiliated schools and colleges.

The provincial president of Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association, Dr Johar Ali, who is also president of Peshawar University Teachers Association, held a meeting with members at Islamia College University and informed them about the development.

“We are thankful to the chancellor for resolving this issue .We called off our strike when the notification was issued this afternoon,” said Dr Johar. He added that classes would resume from September 27.

The teachers of the public sector universities had boycotted classes from September 23 as a protest as they were not paid 15 per cent raise in their salaries like other government servants.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Barrister Masood Kauser, who is also chancellor of public sector universities in the province, took notice of the issue and called a meeting of the vice-chancellors to discuss the matter with them. The issue was resolved
when the vice-chancellors issued notification that decision about 15 per cent raise in the salaries of universities employees would be implemented from October 2011.

The University of Peshawar and other public sector universities issued notifications that the arrears of month of September would also be paid to the teachers. The PUTA in a press release thanked the chancellor and the vice-chancellors of University of Peshawar, Agricultural University, Islamia College University, University of Engineering and Technology and Institute of Management Sciences for issuing notifications regarding implementing the decision of 15 per cent raise in the salaries of staff.
The teachers said that they would perform duty with more concentration and hoped that chancellor would continue to take interest in resolving their problems.