PESHAWAR, May 31: The Peshawar University Teachers Association (Puta) in its general body meeting on Thursday rejected the recommendations made by the Task Force on Higher Education in its present form.

Joint President of Puta and Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (FAPUASA) Nasir Ali Khan told PPI that the recommendations made by the Task Force were only related to “governance” and had nothing to do with research and development activities, welfare of teachers and students and the overall development in the higher education.

He said these recommendations had already been rejected by the universities of Sindh and Punjab.

He said that the FAPUASA, being a representative body of all the universities, had rejected these recommendation in its current form and summoned a meeting on June 20 and 21 to discuss the issue and to prepare its own recommendations which would be submitted to the government for discussion with the Task Force on June 22.

Nasir Ali Khan said that the Task Force on Higher Education, constituted about seven months ago to review the higher education status in the country and to present its recommendations, had laid stress only on the governance, overall management, and did not offer any suggestion on the overall development and research activities carried out in the universities.

He said the teachers community was looking for comprehensive reforms policy that governs all aspects, including a policy for staff promotion, students development, career opportunities, improvement in infrastructure, besides providing opportunities to the talented students and the good governance.

Disagreeing with the criterion made for task force membership, Nasir Khan said only three vice-chancellors had been made member of task force, while five non-academicians had also been included which had nothing to do with education. He demanded that these five non-academic members should be replaced with people belonged to education field.—PPI