MUZAFFARABAD:A financial deficit exceeding Rs1bn has pushed the University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (UAJK) to the brink, with academic and administrative staff threatening to shut down all five campuses over the non-payment of salary increases for the past seven months.

The warning was issued by Academic Staff Association (ASA) president Dr Rehana Kausar and the Administrative Staff Association (AdSA) president Israr Saeed Qadri on Wednesday at a press conference along with some others.

They said they had given the AJK government a deadline of Feb 2 to take concrete steps to resolve the crisis, warning that failure to meet their demands by Feb 1 would lead to the complete closure of all campuses and a march towards the Legislative Assembly.

According to them,despite salary increases announced for the financial year 2025–26, UAJK employees had yet to receive the enhanced pay. More than 30 employees had long been deprived of pension payments and leave encashment, while families of deceased employees had been denied benefits under the family assistance package due to the non-availability of funds.

Several employees, they added, were suffering from serious ailments such as cancer, heart disease and kidney disorders and were facing additional hardship due to non-payment of medical bills. They said that despite assurances given between Oct 15 and Oct 25, 2025, salary arrears had not been cleared, leaving staff with no option but to protest.

Salik Abbasi, president of the Non-Gazetted Employees Association, and Sharif Awan, president of the All Government Employees Association, who were also present on the occasion, announced full support for the ASA and AdSA and warned of state-wide protests if the issue remained unresolved.

Tracing the origins of the crisis in the UAJK, established in 1980 as the region’s first university, Dr Kausar and Mr Qadri said the financial strain began after the Mirpur campus was granted university status in 2009, followed by Poonch in 2012 and Kotli in 2014.

While assets worth billions of rupees were transferred to the newly created universities, financial liabilities remained with the parent institution, they said, adding, a subsequent decline in student enrolment further reduced income, while the university’s grant was frozen following the devolution of higher education under the 18th Constitutional Amendment in 2017.

They said UAJK currently received an annual grant of only Rs3.5 million from the AJK government, which was grossly inadequate. As a result, annual salary increases had not been paid on time for the past four to five years, with the 2025 increase still pending despite being paid elsewhere in the state.

They said faculty and staff had been observing a partial boycott of teaching and administrative work for the past week, but neither university authorities nor government officials had responded.

They informed that the current and former vice chancellors, as well as the [AJK] President and the Higher Education Commission chairman had repeatedly written to the AJK government to fulfil its responsibility of addressing the varsity’s financial crisis, but no positive response had been received so far.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2026