PESHAWAR, Dec 27: The University of Peshawar has approved promotion of about 465 teachers to the next grade as announced by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Oct 6, sources said.

A majority of the university’s teachers were promoted at a syndicate meeting held here on Wednesday. However, 17 associate professors and professors were not promoted as they did not have a PhD degree. A committee was formed to look into their case, the sources said.

In all, about 700 teachers of various colleges affiliated with the university would be promoted, they said.

The prime minister had announced promotion to higher grades for the faculties of the universities on the Salam Teachers Day observed on Oct 6.

The Higher Education Commission was of the view that some criteria must be followed for the promotion.

It was left up to the syndicates of the universities to decide what course of action they wanted to adopt.

The University of Punjab and the engineering universities in Karachi and Lahore had also implemented the proposal, the sources said.

Peshawar University Teachers Association executive body member Arbab Afridi said most of the teachers had benefited but the university should also consider the cases of those who had not been promoted as they had long experience of teaching.