LAHORE, Feb 23: The Punjab University Academic Staff Association has described the compulsory retirement of five faculty members of Centre for High Energy Physics (CHEP) on the orders of the Punjab governor as a “travesty of justice”.

PUASA President Dr Mumtaz Salik told Dawn on Saturday that the governor’s decision of revising and enhancing punishment for the five faculty members, which was already awarded by the syndicate 11 months ago, was an affront to the varsity’s statutory bodies.

He said the syndicate’s decision was implemented on April 11 last year. “No law in any part of the world gives repeated punishments for a single offence,” he regretted.

In order to express strong resentment of PU faculty members, Dr Salik said a PUASA general body meeting had been called on Feb 27 (Wednesday) at the Institute of Chemical Engineering and Technology auditorium at 10.30am. It would discuss the matter of governor’s interference in the PU affairs and chalk out a strategy to protest against the “unfair decision”.

Following the meeting, he said, a protest rally would be taken out on the varsity campus.

Dr Salik demanded that the governor should withdraw the “fresh punishment notification” because it showed his mala fide intention against CHEP’s faculty members. “The newspaper report too reflects that the governor has sought a particular decision from a two-member inquiry committee to ‘victimise’ the five teachers,” he added. Such a decision, he said, would create problems for the new political setup after coming into power.

If the decision would not be withdrawn, he said the PUASA would invite all Punjab universities’ teachers to join its protest against the governor. In the second phase, he said, all Pakistan varsity teachers through the Federation of All-Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Associations would be involved in the protest.