Salaries have been unchanged for five years, with the Finance Division remaining reluctant to approve proposed increases for universities.
KARACHI:
Scientific researchers working in Pakistan’s public universities have seen their salaries remain frozen for the past five years, and the Finance Division is reportedly unwilling to approve salary increases. Sources say it is also unlikely that the 2026-27 federal budget will include any improvement in their remunerations, including doctoral and other professional allowances.
Prolonged wage stagnation and the lack of significant relief in the next budget have increased concerns about a growing brain drain, with fears that many of the country’s most talented researchers will seek opportunities abroad.
Researchers facing economic pressures say they are increasingly forced to undertake externally funded projects to supplement their income, often to the detriment of their core research activities.
Speaking to The Express PK Press Club, a researcher working under the Tenure Track System (TTS) said, “We are now trying to get scientific projects from the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and other institutions to make ends meet. Although this affects our main research work, we have little choice.
The Tenure Track system was introduced by the famous scientist and former president of HEC, Atta-ur-Rahman, to attract highly qualified academics and researchers to universities. Most of the TTS faculty members hold doctorate degrees from foreign institutions. However, due to stagnant salaries, many researchers have already left academia, leaving only around 3,600 TTS researchers in the system.
Sources said that when TTS appointments were first introduced, salaries were roughly double those under the Basic Pay Scale System (BPS) because TTS professors were subject to much stricter performance indicators and their work was reviewed every three years by international experts.
However, after five years without salary adjustment, TTS salaries remained much lower than those of BPS teachers. A task force set up by the Planning Commission of Pakistan under the leadership of Ahsan Iqbal recommended in March this year that TTS salaries should be aligned with those of the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics salary structure, with a bonus of 35 percent.
The recommendations were then approved by the Senate Standing Committee on Finance, which directed the Finance Division to implement salary increases based on the proposed formula. HEC has also formally written to the Finance Department on this subject.
Despite these developments, sources say the Finance Division remains reluctant to accept the recommendations.
According to available figures, a BPS professor in a university currently earns nearly Rs500,000 per month, while a TTS professor earns around Rs350,000 after tax deductions. Similarly, a BPS associate professor earns around Rs 400,000, compared to around Rs 250,000 for a TTS associate professor. A BPS assistant professor earns around Rs 325,000, while a TTS assistant professor gets around Rs 150,000 after tax.
Several researchers from the Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IBCCS) at the University of Karachi continue to produce high-quality research under the TTS, but their salaries remain frozen despite their academic contributions.
