QUETTA  -  Balochistan Chief Minister (CM) Mir Sarfraz Bugti on Wednesday ordered immediate payment of salaries to universities teachers and others staff and their pensions. He said that salaries are the right of working teachers and employees, timely payment of salaries should be ensured for improvement of education.

He expressed these views while presiding over a high-level meeting on the financial and administrative affairs of public sector universities at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat.

The meeting was attended by Provincial Education Minister Raheela Hameed Khan Durrani, Finance Minister Mir Shoaib Noshirwani, Provincial Minister for Planning and Development Mir Zahoor Buledi, Members of Balochistan Assembly Khair Jan, Chief Secretary Balochistan Shakeel Qadir Khan, Principal Secretary Imran Zarkoon, Finance Secretary Babar Khan, Secretary Higher Education Hafiz Muhammad Tahir and vice chancellors of public sector universities. The financial and administrative affairs of the universities of Balochistan were reviewed and it was decided that there will be no new recruitment in the universities of Balochistan, ad-hoc appointment of essential teaching staff will be under the new Act came under discussions during the meeting.

In this context, legislation related to contract policy will be passed in the Balochistan Assembly soon, due to the financial crisis, new construction projects will not be created in the universities said in the meeting.

In a meeting, the CM of Balochistan approved the establishment of a committee headed by the chief secretary for measures under Public Private Partnership for the commercial activities of universities.

The CM said that the teachers who would perform their duty and could be entitled to salaries, but those could not pay salaries to sitting at home saying that action to be taken against absentee and dereliction of duty officials. Balochistan CM expressed concern over unnecessary recruitment in public sector universities and directed that needless and additional staff should be reduced and right sizing must be done.

New recruitment and construction projects should be avoided, he said and added that public sector universities should improve their financial management systems.

The CM said that necessary legislation is being made to formulate a comprehensive contract policy, Balochistan Contract Appointment Act is being introduced for recruitment on temporary basis.

He said that development of education is our motto, resources would be provided to universities by deducting funds from development projects and other sources, but we could also want to achieve better results through effective accountability processes.

He also directed the vice chancellors of the universities to phase out the unpopular and unprofitable faculties and reduce the unnecessary expenditure of the varsities, saying that the provision of resources would be subject to performance. Modern research processes and knowledge should be promoted in universities and students should be given useful skills and education to adapt to the demands of the current age, he noted.