In the POJK city Muzaffarabad, the employees of AJK Medical College have been protesting, stating that the Paki ‘establishment’ has refused to extend the contracts of employees who have been working on a contractual basis for the past twelve years, saying that the employees were recruited on political grounds.
The protesting employees have refused to play a supporting role in the teaching process after not receiving salaries for four months, due to which teaching has been suspended in medical colleges. Due to the strike, it has become impossible for professors to continue classes in classrooms.
After this move by the Pak Army, students and their parents are in a state of extreme anxiety and tension.
Salihah, a student at Muzaffarabad Medical College, expressed that due to the employees’ strike, the college’s system has come to a halt. With the power generator out of operation, there is no one to turn it on. She urged the Army to provide salaries to the employees as they also have families to support.
Under the administration of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, there are three medical colleges, including Muzaffarabad, Mirpur, and Rawalakot, with approximately one thousand students under education. These medical colleges employ around three hundred teaching staff, and the strike has left the educational activities in these institutions completely disrupted.
The strike is a serious problem that has the potential to damage the quality of medical education in POJK. Pakistan that is grappling under huge economic debts is now unable to pay the salaries of the teaching staff. The rise in the prices of electricity, flour was already a burden on the public and now disruption in the education will be the final nail in the coffin of Pakistan.