ISLAMABAD, Sept 18: Withdrawal of financial benefits the teachers of Federal Government and Model colleges were enjoying after their promotion under timescale formula (TSF) has sent a wave of unrest among them.

An emergency meeting of their associations on Wednesday discussed the notification of the Finance Division and warned of protest.

The meeting was held at H-8 Islamabad Model Postgraduate College.

The agenda of the meeting, which continued for three hours, was to make strategy and to resist the withdrawal of the benefits.

The Regulation Wing of Finance Division issued a letter dated September 10, 2013.

According to the letter of the Finance Division, no entertainment allowance, senior post allowance, orderly allowance and transport monetization allowance would be admissible under timescale promotion.

Former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani announced to solve the issue of promotion of teachers.

It was decided that the teachers will be automatically promoted to next grade after completion of five years in BPS 17, seven years in BPS 18 and 19.

Finance division gave approval for the promotions and over 1,000 teachers were promoted under TSF Participants of the meeting were of the view that recovery of these allowances would be made with effect from January 1, 2011.

Around Rs300,000 would be recovered from the pay of associate professors of BPS-20.

They will face double loss because there basic pay has also been decreased (approximately Rs1,000) when they got promotion from BPS-19 to BPS-20 on the basis of TSF.

Similarly assistant Professors of BPS-19 will face Rs18,000 loss with the monthly loss of Rs500 per month of entertainment allowance.

President Federal Government College Teachers Association (FGCTA) Prof Tahir Mahmood said that an anger was mounting among the college teachers against CADD because teaching community was deceived by capital administration and development division (CADD) on October 14, 2011 when this bogus notification regarding timescale promotion was issued.

“If a single penny is deducted from the pay of any teacher, we will be at D-Chowk and will continue our protest till resolution of the issue,” he said.

Professor Tanveer Zehra, Senior Vice-President, FGCTA said that after spending weeks on roads and sit-ins at D-chowk by FGCTA in October 2011, college teachers were given the time scale promotion.

The directive of the prime minister clearly speaks that “the post of teachers under FDE be upgraded with effect from January 1, 2011” but CADD did not upgrade the posts of college teachers and the teachers were thrown in the web of technicalities by giving them an ambiguous notification of time scale promotion, she added.

President Central Academic Staff Association of Model Colleges (CASA) Prof Mohammad Rasheed declared hiring and time-scale promotions as the two burning issues of the teaching staff.

He said: “more than 1,000 teachers of Model and F.G setups will be affected by this fraud.”

Talking about the hiring issue, he said: “It is the issue of 90 per cent teachers who are waiting for their hiring payment for two years.”

Professor Mehboob Ahmad, senior vice president of CASA said: “We must be clear on the subject of upgradation and time scale promotion so that we will not be deceived next time.”

Professor Tasneem, President, local unit of Islamabad Model Postgraduate College for Girls G-10/4 suggested taking the legal route to seek justice in this regard.

Professor Deedar Ali Baloch, General Secretary FGCTA informed about the level of anxiety and frustration among the teachers and they assured that all teachers are ready for strike and sit-in at D-chowk.

Professor Shaukat Ali Awan, president H-9 College proposed to meet local MNA for the resolution of this issue.

A joint action committee has been formed which will look into the matter and chalk out the protest plan.

Both the associations have declared that the coming teacher’s day (October 5, 2013) would be observed as black day if the government did not meet their demands.