ISLAMABAD, June 25: The central committee of vice chancellors representing 74 public sector universities of Pakistan here on Monday expressed concerns over non-release of Rs12 billion recurring and development funds to the Higher Education Commission (HEC).

At a meeting presided over by its chairperson Engineer Imtiaz Hussain Gilani, the committee said time had come to resolve all issues confronting the education sector.

Mr Gilani said with all the turmoil the nation was going through we can ill-afford agitations in the universities that are home to over one million students and about 100,000 teachers.

The committee expressed the hope that the newly-elected prime minister would resolve the issues of universities.

Meanwhile, the faculty members of Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) observed a black day against non-release of the fourth quarter of the budget 2011-12 to the HEC.

The call for the black day was given by the Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association.

Dr Gulraiz Akhter, president; Prof Rasheed Khalid, vice-president, and Dr Aqeel Bukhari, secretary of the association’s QAU chapter, in a statement said the government was closing research activities at the institutions of higher learning. They said the government had not yet released the last quarterly installment of the budget 2011-12 to the HEC.

Dr Akhter said: “All the universities planned strategies according to their budgets and non-release of funds would result in the closure of many of their approved projects.”

He said if the government failed to release the budget, non-teaching staff and faculty members in the universities would have no option but to launch a protest move.

“The government should reduce its expenditures rather than stopping funds to the universities,” he added.

The faculty members said development projects had been stopped at the QAU. The association also expressed concern over cuts in allocations for the education sector in the 2012-13 budget. Its office-bearers said such steps would result in destruction of higher education and research culture.

Vice Chancellor QAU Dr Masoom Yasinzai, while talking to Dawn, said universities would get into trouble if the Rs12 billion funds were not released. The faculty members will start protests if they are not paid salaries and we cannot afford it. We have no choice but to use the money allocated for research work for payment of the salaries. We might also contact banks for loans.” He said the QAU had been experiencing so many problems and one can imagine the issues being faced by small universities.

“We have students from the middle class and don’t want to increase fees,” he added.