CHINIOT-The College Teaching Internees (CTIs) recruited by the Punjab government in different colleges across the province are unpaid for the last eight months.
The Punjab Higher Education Department had hired the CTIs in October 2017 all over the province in the colleges to overcome the shortfall of lecturers. The highly educated youth were hired for eight months for a fixed honorarium of Rs30,000 per month.
Out of total, 80 CTIs were appointed in district Chiniot for 3 male; 4 female and 1 commerce colleges. Despite their hard work and punctuality, they were not paid even a single penny as salary till their contract period expired on May 14, 2018.
Deputy Director Colleges Luqman said that the CTIs were hired after a transparent and merit based process but their salary budget could not be released for many months. Last month when the budget was released by the Punjab government, each college submitted bills for payment of their salaries but the district accounts office has refused to pay them.
Govt Islamia College Principal Muhammad Ayub said that the CTIs were very punctual, hard working and dedicated teaching staff who performed even better than the regular lecturers in many cases but they were not paid.
Deputy Director Colleges Prof Luqman said that some 80 CTIs were recruited on merit for teaching at 8 colleges of Chiniot in October 2017 till May 2017. After a long wait, the budget for their salaries was approved by Punjab finance department and sent to District accounts offices last month. All the CTIs submitted their pay bills to DAO but they refused to pay them for unknown reasons.
District Accounts Officer Taj Muhammad was not available for comments. However, a reliable source said that some days ago, finance department Punjab has directed all the district accounts offices not to pass any bill nor pay any amount other than utility bills, fuel of official vehicles and current months salaries till further orders.
Chiniot Deputy Commissioner Rai Manzoor Nasir said that he had sought a report from District Accounts Officer regarding delay in the payment of CTIs’ salaries. He said that steps would be taken to pay them before Eid. The CTIs have appealed to the Chief Justice of Pakistan to look into the long delay in their salaries.