SAHIWAL: The lack of coordination, none responsiveness and inconsistency by the provincial Higher Education Department (HED) and the finance department (FD) for not making a policy on the status of the Assan Assignment Account (AAA)is creating unrest among 2,500 teaching and non-teaching staf f of 18 public colleges in eight districts of Punjab.

District account offices (DAOs) of the eight districtsrepeatedlyinformed the colleges their salaries would be stopped from the next month because both departments had not given any policy over the AAAs.

A source seeking anonymity said that on Oct 25, the HED wrote to the FD that the salary of 18 colleges was being released through the DAO and not through the AAAs.

College employees representatives Prof Bilal Bajwa and Hafiz Ramzan confirmed the letter because salaries for August, September and October were released to the staff of 18 autonomous colleges of Punjab throughthe DAOs.

The letter also states the Punjab Professors and Lecturers Association (PPLA) agitated against the formation of the Board of Governors (BoGs)of the colleges and moved the Lahore High Court which suspended the operadons of BOGs in 2012.

Dawn learnt from sources the special secretary of finance also raised serious legal and financial objections over the nonfunctioning of BoGs since 2012. It is in the wake of deliberations between the HED and the finance department that 2,500 employees got satisfied and hope the department will cancel the `autonomous status` of 18 colleges. The situation, however, got worse when the finance department wrote the Sahiwal DAO on Oct 29 that the salary and nonsalary budget of the Sahiwal Government Post-Graduate College for Women for the second quarter must be placed in the AAA, National Bank of Pakistan, under college principal name.

PPLA office-bearers demanded that the HED and FD form a policy and immediately notify the non-autonomous status of the 18 colleges.