| Dear Readers, A lecturer is not promoted to tenured position without demonstrating a strong record of publishing research, getting research grants, exhibiting academic visibility and teaching. Tenure at many universities depends solely on research publications and research grants although the university policies claim it to depend on research, teaching and service. Publish or perish (Publish or perish". Nature 467 (7313): 252–252. 2010) is a pressure on academia to rapidly and continuously publish academic work to sustain one's career. The reality stands distant as a teacher having no job security can neither focus on research nor on lectures. He can not undertake even a two years research project as he/she is no sure whether he would be there or not? The pressure to publish or perish has been cited as a cause of poor research papers submitted to academic journals (Gad-El-Hak, M. (2004). "Publish or Perish—An Ailing Enterprise?" Physics Today 57 (3): 61–61). Tenure track is used in American and European universities to hire a professor for limited period. Tenure track indicates the professor is running for a permanent position in university or college. Tenure track system in Pakistan is opposite as permanent faculty is opting it for lucrative salaries. Salaries of permanent and tenure track professors are not very different in advanced countries. Idea of tenure track system was introduced in Pakistan after induction of Foreign Faculty Professors (FF) some eight to nine years ago. Salary package of FF professors was Rs. 170, 000-250,000($3035-4464) per month which was 50 to 60% of salaries available in other countries. To reduce heart burning of local professors HEC introduced Tenure Track System (TTS) in 2009. According to revised TTS the salary package for professors is Rs.234, 000 –405, 600 ($ 2412 – 4181). Salaries for permanent professors in BPS are Rs.40, 000 to 76,000 which must increase to minimize the difference between BPS and TTS salaries. There are multiple constraints on foreign faculty and tenure track professors but there is no restriction on permanent faculty. Idea of tenure track system has become limited just to higher salary packages rather than original spirit worldwide. HEC spends a huge amount of public money on researchers instead of research. TTS Professors of specific affiliations, beliefs, races and ethnic groups are seen dominant on various positions in most universities in Pakistan. HEC's permission to consider non impact factor journals for promotion of permanent faculty to higher grades has further worsened the quality of research quality in Pakistan. There are several examples where local PhD bearers were promoted to professorship (BPS 21) without publishing any single paper in impact factor carrying cited journals. Most of politically not academically promoted professors are placed on administrative posts where they destroy the whole system. HEC has blacklisted many fake PhD degree holders but a large majority of incompetent PhDs is still on high chair positions in universities. Dr Nasrullah Khan Kalair --- On Mon, 12/3/12, Waqqas Akhtar <waqqas_akhtar@yahoo.com> wrote:
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