QUETTA: Leaders of the joint action committee, including Prof Dr Kaleemullah Barech, Shah Ali Bugti, Nazir Ahmed Lehri, Fareed Khan Achakzai, and others, on Sunday said that despite 24 days passing in March, the professors and employees of the University of Balochistan (UoB) have not received salaries and pensions for the last three months.

Additionally, the announced 35 per cent payment in the annual budget for research centres’ professors, officers, and employees, as well as house rent allowance, has not been disbursed yet, they added.

They said that professors and employees have set up camps in front of the main gate of the UoB to demand salaries and pensions throughout Ramazan. They have been organising daily protest rallies and sit-ins on Sariab Road.

Moreover, they have conducted protest rallies from the UoB to the Quetta Press Club and protested in front of the secretariat, Quetta commissioner office and Manan Chowk. However, neither the provincial nor the federal government has taken notice, and the Higher Education Commission, Islamabad has also shown indifference.

The committee strongly appealed to all political parties, student organisations, civil societies, lawyers, and journalists to actively join the struggle to ensure the payment of salaries and pensions for the last three months to the professors and employees of the UoB.

Published in Dawn, March 25th, 2024