By Kehkashan Tabbasum
Islamabad, (Parliament Times) :The staff of the National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research, Islamabad, supported by the officers and faculty, have resorted to a pen-down strike owing to non-payment of allowances and other fringe benefits announced by the Federal government from time to time since 2021.
The pen-down strike was started by the staff on Thursday, April 25 bearing the black bands to register their protest.
The National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research is one of the Centres of Excellence of the Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad since created in 1974.
Unfortunately, the NIHCR has been facing financial and administrative crises for the last few years owing to the apathy of the Higher Education Commission as well as incapable administration of the NIHCR and lack of interest by the sitting and former VCs of the QAU.
With the passage of time, the situation has worsened to the extent that the NIHCR staff, officers and faculty, had to go for registering their protest after being discouraged time and again by all those who are at the helm of affairs.
Spearheading the protest, Dr Hassan Baluch, confided to this correspondent that the protest is for drawing attention of NIHCR management to the longstanding payment of House Rent Ceiling since 2021; Implementation of the Special Dispensation Package of Prime Minister for Civil Servants since January 2023; grant of 35% adhoc relief since July 2023; payment of commutation/gratuity and leave encashment to all the five retirees; three of them have moved the Federal Ombudsman for their pensionary benefits and payment medical bills.
Librarian of the Institute, Mr Hazoor Bakhsh Channa, confided that the staff had been meeting in person with the Director and the Accounts Officer and raised these issues with them time and again for payment, but they indulged in blame game by responding that the HEC had not released budget/funds. Shamelessly, they have shown no progress till today in securing required funds for payment of pending dues, he viewed.
HOUSE RENT CEILING
Monthly house rent ceiling has not been paid to the NIHCR staff since January 2021 as well as the Institute has not implemented house rent ceiling revised in July 2021 as yet due to non-release of the required funds by the HEC.
Mr Atlas Khan, retired Accounts Officer and a pensioner now, disclosed that Inspite of all the budgetary shortcoming, some blue-eyed employees are being getting/paid all the allowances and fringe benefits for which the NIHCR lower cadres staff had to resort to the pen-down protest.
All those who have hired houses are hard hit as they have to pay monthly rent to the owners from their meagre salaries while the owners of self-hired houses are unable to carry out maintenance of their houses in time for which they have to spend money from their scanty salaries for upkeep
NON-IMPLEMENTATION OF SPECIAL DISPENSATION FOR THE CIVIL SERVANTS IN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FOR THE EMPLOYEES IN BPS-1 TO BPS-16
The NIHCR has not implemented the grant of special dispensation for the civil servants in BPS-1 to BPS-16 in the Federal Government effective January 01, 2023 as yet allegedly owing to non-release of required funds by the HEC.
NON-GRANT OF 35% ADHOC RELIEF SINCE JULY 01, 2023
Similarly, the NIHCR has not granted 35% adhoc relief announced in the Federal Budget 2023-2024 to its staff.
NON-PAYMENT OF COMMUTATION/GRATUITY AND LEAVE ENCASHMENT TO PENSIONERS
The NIHCR has yet to pay pension and commutation/gratuity and leave encashment to its at least six retired employees staffers which has not been paid for the last three years by the NIHCR authorities due to prevailing financial situation. One retired employee had died within one year of his retirement without getting a single penny from the NIHCR out of his pensionary benefits; two have moved the Federal Ombudsman; the rest are awaiting release of their pensionary grants by the HEC.
DELAYED PAYMENT OF SALARIES/PENSION
The HEC has been releasing piecemeal three-month grant to the NIHCR which is siphoned off in two months. Now the staff are not being paid their salaries in time. Salaries are always late for third month of a quarter for which the financial grant had been released. It has become a practice now. Such grievances have severely downgraded morale of the NIHCR staff thus making them depressant all the time.
It seems as if the mechanism evolved by HEC and supervised by Ministry of Education has failed to ensure release of funds from Ministry of Finance and disburse it on time. There is an urgent need for release of special grant to the NIHCR so that accumulating backlog can be cleared. It shows inefficiency of the HEC as it has not demanded annual budget from Ministry of Finance according to its subordinate institutions’ needs.
In such a situation, all the funding institutions like Ministry of Finance; Ministry of Education and Professional Training and the Higher Education Commission should sit together and frame a modus operandi by planning a bailout package to pull the NIHCR out of acute financial crunch and allocate higher supplementary budget for the fiscal 2023-24 to tide over huge budget deficit due to rising inflation.
As a first step, since the HEC is the funds allocation and releasing body, the HEC authorities should sit and chalk out a plan of payment to reinvigorate NIHCR’s financial health by releasing liberal grants.
Besides, the HEC should appoint a focal person to look into the NIHCR financial backlog; endorse veracity of the financial claim and recommend/get released funds to the NIHCR without any delay so that it could regain its financial stability.
Hope the concerned authorities would take cognizance of the prevailing financial situation in the NIHCR.