ISLAMABAD:
Pakistan could soon face a serious human resources crisis in public universities, as the country’s highly qualified researchers and professors are on the brink of burnout due to the freezing of their salaries from 2021 and an 81% increase in their tax burden.
These highly qualified researchers and professors, hired under the Tenure Track System (TTS), received the last pay increase in 2021 and have since faced at least three major inflation increases, including the record inflation rate of 38%.
The last recruitment under the TTS was made in 2020. Since then, these specialized professionals have experienced attrition, without an increase in their salaries, according to details presented to the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Planning and the Senate Permanent Committee on Finance.
Minister of State for Finance Bilal Kayani also met the representatives on Tuesday, but no final solution was agreed upon except temporary relief promised by the Finance Ministry, according to participants in the meeting.
The Ministry of Finance stated that it would support a one-time increase in salaries, but that the increase would be given excluding certain allowances that minimize the real impact for educators.
The TTS, a performance-based and contract-based faculty employment system, was introduced in 2002 to attract high-quality doctoral researchers to public universities with a commitment to give them double salaries compared to professors hired on the regular base salary scale.
However, instead of getting any advantage, their salaries are frozen from 2021, these details showed.
These highly qualified people have been marginalized despite their exceptionally good performance, which is earning the country foreign grants for educational projects and improvements in university rankings due to their research publications.
In 2021, the minimum salaries were Rs 175,500 for an assistant professor, Rs 263,250 for an associate professor and Rs 394,875 for a professor. These salaries have remained unchanged since then, while the income tax burden has increased by 81% in the last five years, along with a sharp rise in prices.
If regular increases had been applied over the past five years, an assistant professor would now earn Rs 328,000 a month, an associate professor Rs 492,000 and a professor Rs 738,000, according to a presentation made to the Senate Standing Committee on Finance last month.
Although specialized category teachers did not receive annual increases, the increase they received was barely 5% annually.
According to information given to the Ministry of Finance and the Senate Standing Committee on Finance, prices increased by 87% and the tax burden increased by 81% for the TTS category, but they did not get any increase in salaries.
Researchers and professors were no exception, like other salaried people in Pakistan who are forced to pay more taxes every year. But the worst thing for TTS employees was that they paid more taxes without receiving higher salaries due to increased tax rates and changes in tax tables.
In comparison, teachers hired under government pay scales received a 71% pay increase, which was barely enough to offset the impact of inflation, but was much better than TTS teachers.
The committee headed by Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal had also tried to resolve their problems, but its recommendations have not been respected by the Finance Ministry.
The standing committee had been informed that there were around 4,000 teachers who had not received any salary increase for the last five years, raising concerns among stakeholders.
Pakistan Senior Teachers Association (APTTA) president Dr Asif Ali said the body was in talks with the Finance Division since November last year for a review of their salaries.
He further said that a special task force constituted in 2023, headed by the Planning Minister, had also made recommendations aligned with the association’s position.
The Iqbal Task Force recommended that the TTS salary structure be compared with the Basic Pay Scale (BPS) framework as applied at the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), based on the BPS structure applicable for FY 2025-26, with a 35% premium on the BPS-based gross salary to be allowed as TTS allowance to ensure competitive compensation.
But these recommendations were never implemented.
An additional finance secretary took a stand in the parliamentary committee stating that while the matter was not a legally binding requirement, the government supported the proposed adjustments and the case was ongoing. He reported that efforts were being made to expedite the matter, although no definitive timetable had been set.
