SAHIWAL: The local activists of the Punjab Professor and Lecturer Association (PPLA) demanded reversal of decision pertaining to the opening of Asaan Assignment Account (AAA) for disbursement of salary of employees working in 22 public sector colleges of the province.

The demand was made in the PPLA divisional executive committee meeting at Government Graduate College on Friday.

The directions for shifting public sector employees’ salaries from District Accounts Office designated heads called drawing and disbursement officers (DDOs) to new heads being operated at the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) were given by Provincial Finance Department (FD), Treasure Office and Accountant General (AG), Punjab last month. The procedures for the whole scheme were advised by Finance Division under a notification on Aug 16, 2021.

The divisional chapter of the PPLA demanded the government to disburse the college employees’ salaries by the District Account Office as per previous routine and not through AAA, operated by each head of the said public sector college.

The PPLA has threatened to launch a province wise protest move if the decision was not reversed.

Of the 22 colleges, nine are situated in Lahore while the rest in Sahiwal, Rawalpindi, Sargodha, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Jhelum, Bahawalpur, D.G. Khan and Sialkot, respectively.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2021