KARACHI: The staff of the Centre of Excellence in Marine Biology (CEMB) at Karachi University (KU) held another protest on the campus for the third consecutive day on Friday over non-payment of their salaries for the past three months.

Sources said the CEMB, directly funded by the Higher Education Commission (HEC), had been facing a serious financial crisis following significant deduction in its grant and that too was released on a quarterly basis after prolonged delay.

Currently, they said, 40 teaching and non-teaching staff members were associated with the KU facility.

“We are constantly being deprived of our fundamental right to on-time payment of our monthly salary. This time, we are forced to spend even our Eid without salaries,” said Dr Faiz Muhammad, an assistant professor at CEMB, adding that the staff was forced to hold protests for their salaries after every three months.

The protesters appealed to KU Vice Chancellor Dr Khalid Iraqi, also the chairman of CEMB’s Board of Governors, and the chairman of the Higher Education Commission to intervene in the matter.

Affected employees of Centre of Excellence in Marine Biology seek HEC chairman, varsity’s VC’s intervention

Sources said that the prolonged delay in salaries had forced some staff members to go on leave while others had found part-time jobs.

The worst affected, they said, were the pensioners as some of them were deprived of their dues pending for years.

“There is a major deduction in the facility’s funds and that too is released on a quarterly basis. Almost 45 per cent of the total funds we get go into payment of pensions to 40 retired staff members,” an administrative officer at CEMB told Dawn, adding that the facility had asked the HEC to set up a separate pension fund.

He hoped that the funds would be released next week.

“We are finding it very tough to pay on-services employees their salaries since the facility has a high number of retired staff members and there is no separate fund for them,” a senior teacher said.

According to him, the financial crisis has hard hit research at the facility.

“Not a single penny is received for research. Hence, lab infrastructure, classrooms and research equipment are in poor condition. Two of the four vehicles meant for research activities are out of order for a long time. Fortunately, however, faculty members compete for individual research projects and often win grants from private organisations,” he explained.

He also shared that the facility headed by an assistant professor hadn’t seen a selection board since 2010 and that there was a special case of a senior teacher who was deprived of his salary for 10 months.

Dawn tried to reach out the in-charge of the CEMB and KU Vice chancellor but they weren’t available for comments.

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2024