SAHIWAL: The Punjab Professors and Lecturers Association (PPLA) has decided to launch a province-wide protest movement against the so-called apathy of the Higher Education Department (HED) for not implementing an agreement between Higher Education Minister Raja Yasir Humayun Sarfraz and PPLA Provincial President Hafiz Abdul Khaliq Nadeem on April 2, 2019.

The agreement had followed a week-long sit-in by the association in front of the Punjab Assembly.

This was decided in an eight-hour meeting convened at Diyal Singh College, Lahore. The meeting was chaired by Malik Ramzan, acting president of the PPLA, and attended by central executive members along with leading activists of Ittehad-i-Asatiza from nine divisions of Punjab.

In the meeting, the PPLA blamed both the department and the minister for using delaying tactics to fulfil the demands agreed upon, including approval of five-tier promotion formula as being practiced in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, pay protection of the contractual employees inducted in the Musharraf era and fast-track promotion of 2,581 college teachers against vacant post of the HED.

It was decided that the protest movement would be launched in two phases. In the first phase, protests will be organised at district and divisional headquarters and later a sit-in will be staged at Civil Secretariat, Lahore, on Jan 27 and Feb 10.

Malik Ramzan, while talking to Dawn by phone, said Minister Sarfraz had assured them that all the points agreed between them would be implemented within four months.

“Seven months have passed now and the college teaching community is not sure what will happen to the demands,” he said.

He said the college teachers were not sure whether the HED higher-ups were not honouring the commitment of their own minster or there was a lack of political will by the Punjab government hindering implementing on the agreement.

Zahid Awan of the Ittehad-i-Asatiza claimed that the promotion cases had been completed and lying with the HED, but it was not implementing them. He demanded that all due promotion cases be implemented before the end of March 2020.

Ramzan said that Minister Sarfraz had agreed in principle with the PPLA leadership that in future no policy would be introduced without taking all stakeholders on board. They demanded the HED consult them over its proposed plan of establishing community colleges, conversion of public sector postgraduate colleges into universities and giving more than 200 public sector colleges into the higher secondary schools ambit.

Ramzan said that recently, Government Postgraduate College Chakwal was discreetly converted into University of Chakwal under an Act last year.

At the end of the meeting, the PPLA passed two resolutions demanding abolition of University of Chakwal Act 2019 and restoration of benevolent fund enhancement notification.

The higher education minister could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.

Published in Dawn, January 18th, 2020