HAVING served for 36 long years the University of Balochistan (UoB), the oldest and the largest university of the province, I retired from service as a professor at superannuation in 2015. Like thousands of pensioners, I have not been getting my pension regularly for the last one year.

The payment of pension liabilities situation is getting worse with every passing month. The university administration has expressed its reservations regarding the payment of even the monthly salaries regularly. The reimbursement of medical bills has been pending for long as well.

The size of pension population has been increasing generally, and universities are no exception on this count. Unable to generate funds of their own, the universities find themselves struggling to meet their expenses, including the pension liabilities. This is exactly what is happening at the UoB. The UoB pensioner community, spread over different parts of the country, is faced with financial difficulties as the pension amount has stopped reaching their bank accounts.

The teachers and members of the academic staff association had staged a number of protest demonstrations and held a series of press conferences after which the provincial government had given them a bailout package last November. A few months of pension was paid, but now they are again without pension.

Like salaries, pensions are part of one’s rights. In old age, being surrounded by health issues, utilities, liabilities and social responsibilities, like children’s marriages, pensioners are facing enormous difficulties.

Like UoB, a number of public-sector universities in Pakistan have been facing similar problems. The provincial and federal governments need to adjust the situation through bailout packages and grants. The Higher Edu- cation Commission (HEC) in Islamabad should probe the matter to see if pension funds are diverted to other purposes.

Prof (Dr) Mansoor Akbar Kundi
Vice-Chancellor, Bahauddin
Zakariya University
Multan

Published in Dawn, April 16th, 2023