ISLAMABAD: Scores of jobless and contractually employed PhD degree holders on Monday staged a protest demonstration outside the Higher Education Commission (HEC) building.

Holding placards, the protesters blocked the main road in front of the HEC headquarters.

The protesters, who completed their doctorate degrees under the HEC scholarship schemes recently, said they were suffering a lot because of the ineffective job placement policy of the commission.

“The PhD scholarship scheme consumed lots of monetary resources and years of human efforts on part of the degree scholars but the benefit of the scheme could not be achieved,” said Dr Sher Ali, one of the protesters.

Protesters say HEC failed to provide proper jobs to 256 scholars who completed their degrees under its scholarship schemes

“Before availing the scholarship we had signed an agreement with the HEC under which we would serve in Pakistani universities for five years. But the HEC is now providing us only one year’s job under an interim placement programme.”

He equated the HEC with a factory which produced goods but made no arrangements for marketing.

Another protester, Dr Qasim Ali, said after completing the PhD programme, the scholars were not being provided jobs in the universities of Pakistan.

The protesters said it was unfortunate that after achieving the highest education in various fields from foreign and local universities, most of the PhD degree holders were facing an extreme difficulty in finding jobs in the country.

Consequently, the scholars are neither able to earn livelihood for their families nor can pay back to the society. “The HEC chairman has been telling the media that there is currently a need for thousands of PhDs in the country. But the HEC has failed to provide proper jobs to 256 scholars who completed their degrees in recent years under the scholarship schemes.”

The protesters demanded that the PhD degree holders should be provided jobs under the tenure track system. They said the HEC should advise the universities to hire PhD graduates to fulfil vacant posts of assistant professors.

“The HEC must also advise the universities to regularise the interim, contractual or visiting PhD faculty after completion of their interim placement period on respective posts as per the HEC-university agreement,” the protesters added.

They also said the HEC should ensure the student-teacher ratio in all the public and private universities.

Later, the HEC member operation, Ghulam Raza Bhatti, and member human resource development Waseem Hashmi held talks with the protesters and assured them that the commission would play its role in resolving their legitimate issues.

HEC’s acting spokesman Waseem Khaliqdad said technically the commission had no direct role in providing jobs to the PhD degree holders.

“A majority of scholars who completed their PhD under the HEC scholarship programme have already been given jobs in various universities. We will check the issue and then will address the concerns of those who held the protest today,” he said.

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2017