LAHORE: Faculty members of the Comsats University on Tuesday locked out its campuses across the country as the federal government failed to meet their demand of to regularise their services.

The 5500 faculty members have been holding protest for the last week to demand job security, medical insurance, timely promotions and merger of ad hoc allowances. Due to protest of the faculty and boycott, examinations of over 40, 000 students have been cancelled.

Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry told Dawn that he had held a meeting with the Comsats Central Academic Staff Association and constituted a four-member committee to look into the demands.

He said regarding their demand to regularise 4000 faculty members, he had asked the committee members to assess its financial impact.

Mr Chaudhry said he had requested the faculty members to end boycott till getting recommendation from the committee so that the students should not suffer.

He said they would later send the recommendation to the university senate for approval.

The committee members include Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) secretary, two members of ASA and Chairman of the federal Higher Education Commission.

However, the Comsats central ASA information secretary Umar Farooq in his recorded message circulated on social media said they would not end their boycott till fulfillment of their demands.

He said all campuses would remain on boycott till further decision of the association.

Later, a news release issued by the Comsats University stated that some faculty members had shut the Comsats University and its campuses in other cities only to seek their “illegal job confirmation”. The call for protest came despite the earlier commitment given by the illegal staff association to abide by the decisions of the senior administration. It said the association was declared an illegal entity by the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Senior administrative officials of the university stated that only legal and fair demands of the faculty members had been accepted. The proper course for the affirmation of these decisions rested with the Comsats University Senate. “The illegal association is, however, not ready to follow the rules and regulations and is using blackmail tactics to press the senior administration to issue orders that are illegal and are against public policy.”

The university administration says it is exercising restraint and is working with the ministry and the district administration to ensure that rules are followed and no one is allowed to take the law into their hands. The Islamabad Campus of the University has been closed until Friday in order to ensure that the matter is resolved as per rules and writ of the administration is enforced.

Published in Dawn, June 19th, 2019