ISLAMABAD, Nov 7: The employees of the International Islamic University (IIU) are yet to get the 20 per cent pay raise announced in the federal budget of the current financial year.

The University Staff Welfare Association at a meeting on Friday protested against both the university administration and the Higher Education Commission (HEC) for not paying them the pay increase even after four months.

“When we go to the university administration, they say due to unavailability of funds from the HEC, the pay raise could not be provided to the employees. Interestingly, they ask us to approach the HEC and get the funds released so that the increased salaries could be paid to the employees,” Imtiaz Azeem, chairman USWA, told Dawn.

He said the government has reinstated thousands of employees with full financial benefits and would pay them their arrears since 1993; however, it is not willing to give us our pay raise.

On the one hand the university administration says it does not have funds to pay the staff their salaries and on the other it is busy employing new staff on contractual basis, Mr Azeem said, adding they would go on an indefinite strike if the university did not raise their salaries as declared by the government.