ISLAMABAD:
Pakistan may soon face a serious human resources crisis at public universities as the country’s highly qualified researchers and professors are on the brink of attrition due to the freezing of their salaries since 2021 and an 81% increase in their tax burden.
These highly qualified researchers and professors, hired under the Tenure Track System (TTS), received the final salary increase in 2021 and have since faced at least three major inflation surges, including the record inflation rate of 38%.
The last recruitment under the TTS took place in 2020. Since then, these specialized professionals have been experiencing attrition, with no increase in their salaries, according to details submitted to the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Planning and the Senate Standing Committee on Finance.
State Minister for Finance Bilal Kayani also held a meeting with the representatives on Tuesday but no final solution was agreed, except for temporary relief promised by the Finance Ministry, according to meeting participants.
The Ministry of Finance has indicated that it would support a one-time salary increase, but that this increase would be delivered excluding certain allowances that minimize the real impact for educators.
TTS, a performance-based contract faculty employment system, was introduced in 2002 to attract high-quality doctoral students to public universities with a commitment to grant them twice the salary of faculty hired under the usual base salary scale.
However, instead of benefiting from any advantage, their salaries have been frozen since 2021, these details show.
These highly qualified individuals have been marginalized despite their exceptional performance earning the country foreign grants for educational projects and improved university rankings through 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 wages have remained unchanged since, while income tax pressure has increased by 81% over the past five years, alongside a sharp rise in prices.
If regular increments had been implemented over the past five years, an assistant professor would now earn Rs 328,000 per 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 teachers in the specialized category did not get an annual increase, the increase they received was barely 5% per year.
According to a briefing given to the Ministry of Finance and the Senate Standing Committee on Finance, prices increased by 87% and the tax burden jumped by 81% for the TTS category, but no increase in salaries was recorded.
Researchers and professors are no exception, like other employees 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 getting higher salaries due to increased tax rates and changes in tax brackets.
In comparison, teachers hired under government salary scales received a 71% salary increase, which was barely enough to offset the impact of inflation but was much better than that of TTS teachers.
The committee headed by Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal also tried to resolve their problems, but its recommendations were not honored by the Finance Ministry.
The standing committee was informed that around 4,000 faculty members had not received any salary increase in the last five years, sparking concern among stakeholders.
Pakistan Tenure Track Teachers’ Association (APTTA) President Dr Asif Ali said the body was in discussion with the Finance Division since November last year to get a revision in their salaries.
He added that a special task force constituted in 2023, headed by the Minister of Planning, 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 in the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), based on the BPS structure applicable for the financial year 2025-26, with a premium of 35% on the BPS-based gross salary to be given as TTS allowance to ensure competitive remuneration.
But these recommendations were never implemented.
Another finance secretary took a stand at the parliamentary committee, saying that while the issue did not constitute a legally binding requirement, the government supported the proposed adjustments and that the matter was ongoing. He said efforts were being made to expedite the processing of the case, although no definitive timetable had been set.
