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Salaries will stay the same for five years because the Finance Division refuses to approve pay raises for the university.
BY Mahnoor | 05-06-2026
KARACHI: Researchers at Pakistan’s public universities have not received a pay raise in five years. The Finance Division is reportedly refusing to approve any increases. Sources suggest that the 2026-27 federal budget will likely not include higher pay or extra allowances for PhD holders and other professionals.
Because salaries haven’t increased for a long time and the new budget offers no help, people fear that many talented researchers will leave the country to work abroad.
Researchers facing money problems say they must take on outside paid work to earn more, which often takes time away from their main research.
A researcher told The Express Tribune that they now seek funding from the HEC and other groups just to pay their bills. Even though this takes time away from their main research, they say they have no other option.
Scientist Atta-ur-Rahman created the Tenure Track System (TTS) to bring top researchers to universities. Most TTS teachers have PhDs from abroad. However, because pay has not increased, many researchers have quit, leaving only about 3,600 people in the system.
Sources say that when TTS positions began, they paid about twice as much as the standard pay scale. This was because TTS teachers had much tougher performance rules and their work was checked every three years by international experts.
Because TTS salaries haven’t changed in five years, they are now much lower than BPS faculty salaries. This March, a government task force led by Ahsan Iqbal suggested that TTS salaries should match those at the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, plus an extra 35%.
The Senate Committee on Finance approved the suggestions and told the Finance Division to increase salaries using the new plan. The HEC has also officially contacted the Finance Division about this.
Even with these changes, reports suggest the Finance Division does not want to follow the suggestions.
Current data shows a big pay gap: a BPS professor earns nearly Rs500,000 a month, while a TTS professor gets about Rs350,000 after tax. An associate professor in the BPS earns roughly Rs400,000, compared to Rs250,000 for a TTS professor. Finally, a BPS assistant professor makes about Rs325,000, while a TTS assistant professor earns around Rs150,000 after taxes.
Many researchers at the University of Karachi’s IBCCS are doing great work through the TTS program, but their pay has not increased despite their hard work.
