TTS professors demand pay raise

The Tenure Track System (TTS) professors have announced to stage a protest outside the Higher Education Commission (HEC) next month if their salaries are not doubled.

Addressing a press conference at National Press Club on Monday, All Pakistan Tenure Track Faculty Association (APTTA) representatives said that their increment in salaries was done in 2015 which was supposed to be done in 2018. They added that teachers under the basic pay scale (BPS) system got an increment of about 80 percent in their salaries since 2015.

APTTA General Secretary Dr Sajjad Hussain Samra said that the TTS professors put forward their demand of increment in salaries in the meeting with federal education minister Shafqat Mehmood in 2018. They had rendered the same demand with the HEC chairman in June 2015. They added HEC formed a BPS/TTS review committee in 2018 through a notification. The committee suggested a 35-40 per cent increment in salaries which the commission accepted as TTS premium.

The representatives said that had staged a protest outside HEC in October 2020 after which the commission’s chairman promised to increase salaries within a month. However, it was never fulfilled.

They added that the commission’s executive director issued an interim notification in February 2021 regarding the increment in salaries which was not implemented too. APTTA officials said that the newly elected cabinet of the association expressed concerns about HEC’s performance in April, this year.

TTS teachers also ran a full-fledged campaign on Twitter and e-mails and also contacted Dr Ataur Rehman, who endorsed sending a proposal of 100 per cent increment in salaries when he was the chairman. However, the matter is still pending with the finance committee.

The representatives said that there are two recommendations regarding the pay hike were with Pay and Pension secretary Nargis Sethi. However, no progress has been made on the matter so far, they added.

APTTA officials demanded 100 per cent increase in the salary to atone for the six years’ gap in it. Or else, they announced to protest outside HEC on July 12.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 29th, 2021.