ISLAMABAD:Office-Bearers of the Academic Staff Association (ASA) of International Islamic University, led by Dr Tariq Javed and Dr Faiz ur Raheem, President and General Secretary ASA respectively, called on Dr Samina Malik, Rector IIUI on Friday here at the Faisal Masjid Campus.
The Rector was informed that the teaching community expected that appointments on higher positions should always be according to the Statutes of IIUI. Prof Tariq informed that rules require appointment on the position of Deans to be chosen from among the 3 senior most available faculty members. Similar seniority is required to be followed for Chairpersons too, said a press release issued on Saturday.
Any step of appointing junior faculty members and ignoring seniority and rules must be discouraged. Such actions may result in distress among the teaching community and create a non-conducive working environment. The university was already facing several issues of decrease in admissions, and many teachers are disheartened due to delays in holding selection boards and not getting any promotion after lengthy service. In such a situation violation of rules and appointment of juniors can further deteriorate this academic environment.
The delegation also demanded that the government of Pakistan announce a 30-35% pay increase in the current budget admitting inflation and difficult economic conditions of the government servants. However, the relief has not reached the IIUI employees so far. ASA demanded immediate release of the announced salary increase to ease the lives of IIUI personnel.
The delegation also raised the issue of the Welfare Fund. The Rector was informed that this is a voluntary fund which has been created so that the employees can benefit from it in time of need.
However, currently, the fund is managed in a way that has created distrust and the contributors are forced to think of stopping contributions to this fund and establishing an independent fund of their own as there is mismanagement and employees are not getting proper benefits since the last year and a half.
It is strange that people voluntarily giving monthly contributions have no representation in decision-making about its utilisation. The current committees are constituted without following the Board of Trustees guidelines.
Prof Samina assured that she would take up these issues with the authorities and ensure quick solutions. She further stressed that IIUI statutes are binding rules which cannot be violated or ignored.