After 16-year hiatus, NED teachers get their voice back
Karachi: Sep 05: The NED University for Engineering and Technology has regrouped its dormant teachers' union after a gap of 16 years.
The move – much to the relief of teachers – came after the transfer of powers from the late former vice-chancellor Engineer Abul Kalam to the current Prof Dr Muhammad Afzal Haque."His [Kalam's] was an autocratic rule where teachers had no voice of their own," said Dr SM Usman Ali, the general secretary of NED Teachers Association (NETA).
While students and non-teaching staff regard the late vice-chancellor's tenure as a golden era where political violence was curbed and the numbers of departments increased from three to 21, teachers who make up NETA believe otherwise.
"We were never given an opportunity to highlight our problems or laud our successes," said Ali. "The university was run like a military institution."For now, the newly revived teachers' union with 125 members plans to improve the ranking of the university, promote a conducive environment for teachers and pressure the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to release funds."We want to invite international ranking bodies to visit our campus as previously the university was cut off from the media," said Ali.
NETA believes that of all the public-sector universities, teachers at the NED University receive the least facilities. "While at other universities, the PhD allowance is Rs10,000 a month, we at NED only receive Rs5,000," he said. "Only if financial worries do not trouble a teacher he can grow professionally."
The same, he laments, is the case with phone and medical allowances.Ali alleged that in order to rescue the university financially, the late vice-chancellor had mortgaged the provident and pension funds of the university to obtain bank loans. "Now there are no funds to repay bank loans and the retired employees are not receiving pensions," he said. "The NED needs an immediate bail-out package, otherwise our salaries will be frozen."
While Ali agrees the previous government's move to raise salaries by 50 percent had brought some respite for the teachers, he claims that inflation has also increased manifolds since the increment three years ago. "The 10 percent increment announced in the June budget has also not been given to us yet."
Recent orders of the HEC for public-sector universities state they should generate 40 percent of their own resources with the remaining 60 percent to be financed by the government.But NETA believes that public-sector varsities are not profit-generating organisations. "Through these policies, the common man will not be able to educate his children," Ali claims.
NETA plans to start a campaign against the policy in the next few days. "We have joined hands with the national body for university teachers, Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association," he said. "Together we will protest and create a national pressure group." The news۔
