RAWALPINDI, June 20: Female science lecturers have rejected the Rs250 allowance offered by the Punjab government for a ten- day refresher course which ended on Wednesday, Dawn has learnt.

The government had decided to provide Rs500 to each of the participants. However, those lecturers who were imparted training in colleges where hostels existed were entitled to only half of the allowance whether they used the facility or not.

As such, all the 250 lecturers who received training at the Post-Graduate College for Women in Satellite Town were offered only Rs250 per head.

The lecturers, who had come from far-off places like Attock, Jhelum and Gujar Khan, said they had not stayed in the hostel and therefore deserved the full amount.

The Punjab Professors and Lecturers Association has termed this move as discriminatory and strongly protested against it. The president, Mohammad Ilyas Qureshi, has appealed to the Punjab education minister and secretary to pay full allowance to all lecturers.

He said they would also take up the matter with the education minister who will be chief guest at convocation of the college on Thursday.

It is pertinent to mention here that the training course is funded by the Asian Development Bank and the principal of the college has already been handed over an amount of Rs1 million in this regard.