QUETTA: Joint Action Committee, University of Balochistan, staged a rally and held a protest demonstration outside Quetta Press Club on Tuesday, pressing the government to pay four months’ salaries and release of 35 percent allowances already approved in the budget.

The participants of the committee took out the rally from University of Balochistan and after marching marched through different roads, reached Quetta Press Club where a protest demonstration was held.

Addressing the participants, Joint Action Committee leaders Professor Fareed Khan Achakzai, Shah Ali Bughti, Professor Kaleemullah Bareach, and others said that the employees and pensioners of the University of Balochistan had been deprived of their salaries and pensions for the last four months, which was a great injustice.

They said that 35 percent allowances for the employees of the university had been approved in the budget, but funds for the payment for 35 percent allowances had not been released, which was another injustice.

They said it was the responsibility of federal, provincial governments, Higher Education Commission and UoB administration to ensure payment of salaries to the affectees.

The leaders said the protest sit-in under the auspices of the committee had been continuing for the last 45 days, but no action was being taken to get the genuine demands addressed, adding the protest movement would continue until all its demands were met.

They called on Chief Minister Balochistan, Mir Sarfraz Bughti to reflect an amount of Rs10 billion in the budget of the provincial government for the public sector universities of the province, so that issues relating to the payment of salaries and pensions in respect of academicians, officers, official, pensioners could be addressed for good.

Simultaneously, the authorities of federal government were demanded to allocate Rs500 million for the public sector universities of Balochistan.

The protest demonstration was also addressed by Syed Shah Babar, Professor Shah Muhammad Zarkoon, Muhammad Aslam Bangulzai, and Hafiz Abdul Qayyum Shahwani