Minister says some officers took undue advantage of his party’s drive to provide jobs;lawmakers adopt unanimous resolution for 100 percent enrolment in schools
Karachi
The Sindh education minister conceded during the provincial assembly proceedings on Friday that 3,000 schoolteachers had been hired in an unauthorised manner during the previous tenure of his party.
However, he pinned the blame on a dozen senior education department officers instead of holding the Pakistan People’s Party government or his predecessor, Pir Mazharul Haq, responsible for the wrongdoing.
“Some education department officers, including grade-19 ones, had taken undue advantage of the previous government’s drive to provide employment opportunities to the eligible youth of the province,” Nisar Ahmed Khuhro said while responding to Pakistan Muslim League-Functional MPA Nusrat Seher Abbasi’s call attention notice.
“Three thousand teachers were hired while completely disregarding the availability of the sanctioned posts and the budget for disbursing their salaries,” he said.
“However, the present government cannot immediately decide about the fate of these teachers.”
Defending his party’s previous government, Khuhro said it had acted in good faith in an attempt to create employment opportunities.
He said an inquiry was conducted by the government to identify the people responsible for the unauthorised hiring and 12 education officers were suspended as a result.
The minister identified the suspended officers as Attaullah Bhutto and Shams Din Dal; former directors of the School Karachi; Ali Nawaz Niazi, former district officer of the education headquarters; Bashir Ahmed Abbasi, former district officer, Secondary and Higher Secondary Male Karachi; Farnaz Riaz, former district officer, elementary female; Abdul Latif Mughal, deputy district officer elementary male; Mumtaz Ali Sheikh, former district officer, elementary male; Abdul Jabbar Dayo, former district officer secondary and higher secondary male; Musharraf Ali, subject specialist at the Directorate of School Karachi; Liaquat Ali Solangi, assistant accounts officer, Directorate of School Education; Imran Ali Solangi, primary schoolteacher and Naveed Ahmed, assistant at the Directorate of School, Karachi.
Khuhro said the suspended officers had moved the superior court against the government’s disciplinary action and managed to obtain a stay order.
“Though the suspension orders of these officers have been withdrawn on the court’s directives, the provincial government will not post them until the issue of the illegal hiring is settled.”
Besides, the minister added, the education department had been scrutinising the cases of the prospective candidates to determine their eligibility for the posts of teachers.
100 enrolment rate
The provincial lawmakers unanimously passed a resolution for seeking the support of all political parties of Sindh for achieving a 100 percent school enrolment rate in the province as well as improving the educational standard.
A day earlier in Karachi, leaders of nine political parties of Sindh had gathered and jointly endorsed the cause.
Khuhro presented and read out the resolution the contents of which were: “This assembly resolves that we the political parties of Pakistan, proud of our association with Sindh and concerned about the future of this great province, hereby come together to pledge that we are committed to ensuring 100 percent enrolment in Sindh so that every child between the ages of five and 16 is in school, in keeping with Article 25-A of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, and the Sindh Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act-2013.
“We are determined, notwithstanding our political and ideological differences to support each other in making sure that our collective commitment to ensure 100 percent enrolment in Sindh is widely known and widely owned within our parties and among our cadres. We may disagree on many issues but we are united in pursuit of 100 percent enrolment across the province of Sindh.
“We believe that Sindh cannot progress without literacy and numeracy. We are committed to dramatically improving the quality of education our children receive, particularly in reading Sindhi and Urdu, and in Mathematics. We promise to sustain our interests in education in Sindh. We will come together through parliamentary and extra-parliamentary measures to revisit the state of affairs and asses progress at least once every three months”.
Later, the education minister said one of the main reasons behind tabling the resolution was that around six million children in the province were not enrolled in schools, thus they were being denied their fundamental right of receiving basic education.
He said there could be plenty of reasons for these children not going to schools, but collective efforts were required on the part of all stakeholders concerned in the province to have these children enrolled.
“Of the 43,000 schools in the province, some 38,000 are functional but efforts are required to ensure that children receive their basic education there,” he said.
Black sheep in police dept
On a call attention notice of Muttahida Qaumi Movement MPA Kamran Akhtar about the “black sheep” in the police department, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr Sikandar Mandhro said departmental inquiries and disciplinary actions were being taken against 1,171 cops for their involvement in crime.
He added that these officers included four DSPs and an ASP. The rest, he said, were inspectors or of a lower rank.
“The entire police department should not be blamed for the acts of a few,” the minister said.
Three barracks
The legislators also unanimously adopted a resolution for securing the control of three barracks, located behind the Sindh Assembly’s MPAs Hostel, from the federal government.
It was pointed out that the existing space of the MPAs Hostel was insufficient and it needed to be expanded.
The resolution was moved by PPP MPA Syed Nasir Hussain Shah.
Panel on privilege motion
The assembly formed a special committee comprising treasury and opposition MPAs to examine the contents of a pending privilege motion moved by MQM’s Khawaja Izhar-ul-Hassan and Abdul Haseeb. The privilege motion was moved on February 4.
The committee included Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, Dr Sikandar Mandhro, Syed Sardar Ahmed and Irfanullah Khan Marwat.
The privilege motion pertained to the incident of January 14, 12th Rabi-ul-Awwal, when two MQM lawmakers, heading towards the party’s main camp at Naumaish Chowrangi to commemorate Eid Milad-un-Nabi, were not allowed to move beyond Guru Mandir by a police officer.
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