PESHAWAR, Jan 13: The Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association has expressed concern over the alleged interference of the Higher Education Commission in the internal affairs of universities in the country and held it responsible for creating divisions among teachers.

The federation held its general body meeting here on Sunday with Peshawar University Teachers Association’s Prof Dr Mumtaz Salik in the chair.

The meeting passed various resolutions and discussed problems of teachers.

The members of the federation complained that the HEC had been interfering in the matters that should be decided by universities on their own. They called for autonomy of public sector universities.

“The HEC is becoming more of a regulatory authority than a body to facilitate teachers,” they said.

They accused the HEC of creating divisions among teachers by introducing four different kinds of service structures.

The foreign faculty hiring programme had been an insult to ‘loyal’ teachers who had opted to return home after completing their PhDs from abroad and teachers who had remained abroad were instead brought back with inflated salaries under the programme, said Dr Shafiqur Rehman.

He proposed that a teachers’ convention should be held in Islamabad with President Pervez Musharraf as the chief guest to discuss their problems.

They said the ‘Tenure Track System’ for recruiting teachers was flawed since the HEC and its chairman had been given powers to approve appointments.