Massive cut in universities' budgets: vice chancellors unable to pay ad hoc raise in salaries to employees

The vice chancellors of all leading public sector universities of the country have expressed inability to give ad hoc increase in salaries, pensions and other allowances to their employees as announced by the government in budget for current fiscal 2010-11, following a massive cut in their budgets.
This was announced in a joint press conference of the VCs of all the leading universities after attending a meeting of VCs committee chaired by chairperson of the committee Dr Saeeda Asad Ullah. Dr Mughal, VC Sindh University, Dr Yassen Zai, VC Quaid-e-Azam University, Dr Mujahid Kamran, VC Punjab University, VC Peshawar University and VC Balochistan University were also present.
To enhance universities income, now students will have to bear extra burden in shape of fees and other charges, they added. All the VCs unanimously announced that under the current circumstances, it will not be possible for the universities to provide 50 percent ad hoc increase in salaries, 15 percent medical allowance and 15-20 percent pension raise as announced by the government in the budget for the current fiscal 2010-11.
They called upon the government to provide a supplementary grant of Rs 7 billion to the universities to cater salary increase, announced by the government in the budget. They demanded of the government to restore the budget of Higher Education Commission (HEC) to its original level of Rs 28 billion and Rs 30 billion development budgets as was agreed by the Ministry of Finance for the fiscal year 2010-11.
Addressing on this occasion Dr Mujahid Kamran said that more than Rs 90 billion has been invested in the HEC programme which is at stake if the government fails to release immediate grants and restore the original budget as was agreed by the government. The VCs also agreed to take steps to enhance university income through increase of fees and other charges while ensuring that needy students are provided relief through student loans or other measure. They called upon the government not to initiate any new projects for establishment of universities until funding to existing universities is restored to the originally agreed levels.
These funds are pivotal to support and implement Education Policy 2009. They reiterated the need for increase in their recurring budget to take advantage of the capacity that has been built over the past years. The higher education sector is a priority sector that required immediate and urgent support through provision of a supplementary grant.
Meanwhile, VC Sindh University said that they had received 108 degrees of the parliamentarians for verification, of which 105 were declared genuine while additional information has been sought for the remaining 3 degrees due to dubious information.
He said that there is no pressure on the VCs and they are conducting their duty in a free environment. VC Peshawar University said that verification is a routine process, however, at present it has been politicised. He further said that university has returned all of the ten degrees of the parliamentarians after verification.