PESHAWAR: The University of Peshawar (UoP), minority communities, and civil society on Monday strongly condemned the Vice Chancellor’s refusal to pay salaries to Christian employees of the university on the eve of Easter and Muslim employees of the university during Ramadan and before Eid ul Fitr, calling it a blatant violation of human rights.
According to Dr Salman Khan, general secretary of the Peshawar University Teachers’ Association, the VC refused to pay Christian staff on Easter because all university employees had been on strike against him for a month (PUTA).
He regretted that the university administration had refused to pay salaries to other staff members, including teachers, during the month of Ramadan at the request of the vice-chancellor. He claimed that this constituted a violation of human rights and that the matter would be brought up with the Human Rights Commission.
Dr Salman further cautioned that any disruption of law and order would be the responsibility of the Chancellor, VC, provincial government, and university administration. He added that all of the university’s protesting employees would broaden the scope of their demonstration against the VC’s corrupt actions and irregularities and take to the streets.
He claimed that the protesting workers had repeatedly brought the matter of irregularities and illegalities against the VC to the attention of the Governor and the Chief Minister and asked for his immediate dismissal and an impartial investigation into him.
The PUTA secretary stated, “The Chancellor can reinstate his contract if the VC shows himself innocent before the inquiry committee; otherwise, he should be penalised under the law.” Attorney Nawaz Khosa cited a Supreme Court judgement in saying that a wage is a basic entitlement of an employee and is not something that any public institution or its head may discontinue at any time. He also claimed that the Supreme Court ordered strict legal action against the officer.
In condemning the UoP’s failure to pay the salaries of Christian employees, Jatinder Singh, the head of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter of the National Peace Council for Interfaith Harmony, asserted that everyone has the constitutional right to engage in peaceful protest and that no one can be denied compensation.
He requested the Chief Minister to note this action by the VC of KP University. He lamented and condemned that, despite being a Muslim, the VC was withholding salaries from its Muslim employees during the holy month of Ramadan, when minority groups offered Iftar dinners for fasting Muslims.
Dr Muhammad Naeem of the University of Peshawar’s Computer Science Department claimed that the VC UoP attempted to turn the esteemed college into a private school and intended to take extra work from employees for little to no pay. He also claimed that he was involved in the exploitation of daily wage earners and visiting university faculty members.
To save students valuable time during the demonstration, he told them that the instructors were committed to scheduling extra classes. Nevertheless, he said that in the presence of the VC in the office, the teachers and all other varsity staff members needed to prepare to work.
Registrar UoP Saifullah Khan, via video message, noted that all the employees of the university were on a protest; hence the salaries could not be transferred to their accounts. He claimed that on the directives of Idress Khan, VC, an advance of 30,000 rupees was transferred to a Christian employee a day before Easter.
Meanwhile, all the university employees, representatives of minority communities, and civil society urged Governor KPK and Chief Minister to take notice of the salary issue to UoP employees, adding that non-payment of wages in Ramadan and ahead of Eid ul Fitr was an unjustified act. — APP
