KHYBER: The higher education department has released Rs200 million to compensate for the salaries of women teachers hired on contractual basis in the merged tribal district. The teachers, who were mostly posted to higher secondary schools and degree colleges, told Dawn that they had not been paid salary for the last 10 months, causing them serious financial problems. A notification issued by the department on November 1, read, “A total of Rs1348.38 million was required for payment of outstanding salaries to the contract teachers, out of which Rs310.04 million was sanctioned, while Rs200 million was released by the secretary higher education department after some hectic efforts and persuasions by the affected teachers across the merged districts.” The nine female staff members posted to the newly established degree college for girls in Bara are among the teachers, who haven’t got salary for almost 10 months. They had told Dawn that the suspension of salaries had caused them multiple financial problems, so they had to borrow from relatives and friends to meet their needs. Some of them who rented rooms in private hotels in Peshawar had feared they would lose accommodation due to non-payment of monthly rent. After the release of salary, the teachers thanked the department for releasing salary and said they had also applied for MPhil degrees in their respective subjects and were extremely worried about timely payment for their admission to those courses. Others said that they could no longer afford to borrow money from friends and relatives and were not in a position to pay loans but go for higher studies and pay hostel rent. The teachers said elected representatives from Bara including MNA Iqbal Afridi and MPA Abdul Ghani played a role in convincing the department to release the withheld salaries. They however complained the department didn’t pay them full salaries as the amounts equivalent to at least five-month salaries were withheld without assigning any reason.