PESHAWAR: The employees of University of Peshawar, the biggest and oldest public sector varsity of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, on Monday staged a sit-in against nonpayment of salaries and pensions to them for months of June and July.

The teaching and non-teaching staff of UoP participated in the sit-in, held outside the office of Vice-chancellor Prof Johar Ali to demand immediate release of their salaries.

The protesting employees of UoP chanted slogans against vice-chancellor and provincial government for not taking measure to solve financial problems of the historic institution. During the daylong sit-in, they didn’t allow officials of UoP administration to perform duty and forced them to close all the offices in the administration block of the university.

The decision of launching the protest was taken by Joint Action Committee, a joint body of teachers, administrative officers and low-ranking employees of the university.

Puta president says sit-in will continue for another two days

Peshawar University Teachers Association (Puta) president Prof Zakirullah told Dawn that their sit-in would continue for another two days. He said that their protest would be extended to other departments of the university and its nature would be changed, if their salaries were not released within next two days.

He said that the university failed to give salaries to its employees for the month of June and July. “Keeping in view the fragile financial condition of the university, I don’t think that the university will give salaries and pensions to employees for the month of August as well,” he added.

Prof Zakir blamed provincial government for ignoring the historic university of the province and not releasing sufficient funds to it to smoothly run its financial and administrative affairs.

He said that the university required Rs220 million to pay monthly salaries to its employees and Rs140 million for monthly pensions to its former employees.

He appealed to provincial government to allocate funds for the university on the pattern of Sindh and Punjab governments as both allocated Rs42 billion and Rs35 billion, respectively, for universities in those provinces.

A protesting woman said that her husband died a couple of years ago while performing his duty as senior clerk in UoP. However, the university administration failed to release his pension, she said. “My late husband’s pension is the sole sources of income and we are suffering a lot due to nonpayment of the pension,” she added.

She said that the vice-chancellor should resign if he was unable to give salaries and pensions to the employees of the university.

Addressing the protesters, UoP faculty members said that nonpayment of salaries and pensions created financial problems for employees. Employees mainly depended on their salaries and pensions as they had no other sources of income, they added.

Our correspondents from Lakki Marwat adds: The employees of University of Lakki Marwat on Monday staged a protest in front of administration block against nonpayment of salaries and continuous delay in regularisation of their services.

Scores of protesting employees wearing black armbands also chanted slogans in favour of their demands. Employees’ union president Kalimullah and other speakers on the occasion said that employees had been serving the university for the past eight to 10 years, but their services had not been regularised.

“Vice-chancellors come and go after completing their tenure, but they do not bother to pay heed to genuine demands of employees,” they said. They added that employees had not been paid salaries for the last three months despite availability of sufficient funds.

“Without getting salaries, many employees are facing difficulties in coming to the university to perform their duty,” said Kalimullah. He said that employees would have no option but to close all campuses if their demands were not met within two days. Employees said that they would not allow administration to hold examinations amid their protest.

Published in Dawn, August 5th, 2025