• FUUAST accused of not paying pension to its retirees for four months
• VC says only October’s pension not paid

KARACHI: The retired teachers and employees of Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology (FUUAST), Karachi, have not received their pensions for the past four months and other retirement benefits for an even longer time, it has been alleged.

“Those university employees, including teaching and non-teaching staff, who retired between 2017 and 2024, have not received their pensions for the past four months while other post-retirement benefits for an even longer time. Out of those 80 retired employees, six have already passed away, leaving their families in severe hardship,” said Dr Tausif Ahmed Khan, a retired associate professor and convener of the Committee for Retired Teachers and Non-Teaching Staff at FUUAST.

Pointing out the financial distress faced by the retirees, he said many of them were suffering from critical health issues and required regular pension payments for medical treatment. He said:“ Pension is our right, not a charity being given by the government.“

Representing the affected retirees, Dr Khan condemned the university’s treatment to the retirees as “illegal and inhumane”, claiming that the varsity held surplus funds exceeding Rs500 million, but the amount had been invested in a private bank to earn profits.

He claimed that the Federal Ombudsman had directed the VC to use the deposited funds for paying pensions and dues of the retired employees, but the VC again invested last month’s (November 2024) profits — amounting to over Rs100 million — in a private bank in Islamabad.

And that, he said, was being done to benefit a specific bank manager who is reportedly close to university accounts officials. He claimed that the funds were initially invested in Habib Bank’s Bahria Enclave Branch during that manager’s tenure there.

After the manager was transferred to Bank Alfalah, the funds were moved to his new branch without obtaining approval from the university’s Syndicate during its 49th meeting on April 24, 2024, or any other university forum, Dr Tausif further said.

He also said that as per the university’s rules, there was no campus restriction on using the funds as some officials claimed that the money belonged to the Islamabad campus.

In this regard, Higher Education Commission (HEC) spokesperson Tariq Iqbal told Dawn that the HEC only provided grant-in-aid to the public sector universities as a part of universities’ overall funding and that too without any campus distinction. “And the use of those funds is an internal matter of the statutory bodies or the syndicate of the universities,” he added.

When Dawn tried to contact the VC over the said issue, he said that only October’s pension was not paid to the retirees. “Except for October’s pension, no other dues are remaining,” he claimed.

As for the issue of the deposited funds, he said the amount had been invested by the university before he was the vice chancellor.

However, Dr Khan demanded an investigation from the university’s pro-chancellor and Federal Minister for Education Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui and urged the authorities to take immediate action to resolve the crisis and hold those responsible for the misuse of funds accountable. This reporter tried to approach Dr Siddiqui over this, but he was not available.

Dr Khan demanded that the deposited amount in bank be taken out from the said bank to resolve the pensions and other dues of the retired employees of the university’s Karachi campus.

“If we aren’t paid our pensions and other dues, we will be forced to go on a hunger strike from January 2025,” he warned.

Published in Dawn, December 30th, 2024