Sindh’s caretaker chief minister has suspended four officials, including the director general colleges, and the principal and the vice principal of the Government Degree Girls College Al-Noor, District Central, for their negligence, lack of interest and failure to promote education.
Justice (retd) Maqbool Baqar took this action after paying a surprise visit to the college with interim education minister Rana Hussain and Secretary Colleges Sadaf Anees on Tuesday. Baqar observed that classes were not being held properly, and that the condition of the classrooms, furniture, laboratories and toilets was unsatisfactory.
He also observed that the newly constructed auditorium and function hall had become so dirty and dilapidated due to negligence that the false ceiling was caving in, and the colour of the walls had faded due to layers of dust.
During his inspection of the laboratories, he found none of them to be functional, and the equipment placed there was broken and in a precarious condition. He also saw that the toilets had no doors and were in a filthy condition.
He asked DG Colleges Shadab Hussain if he had ever visited the college spread over an acre. When Hussain admitted he had never visited the college, the enraged caretaker CM asked why would students want to get admission to a college where the toilets have neither doors nor running water.
When Baqar inquired about the number of students enrolled at the college, Principal Zahida Begum replied with “300”, but when he checked the registers the actual number turned out to be 390.
The principal had no knowledge of the sanctioned strength of the teaching staff either. The vice principal was called, but she was also clueless about the number of staff. Most of the staff members were not even present at the college.
The interim CM was informed that Islamic studies’ teacher Ishratul Ain did not perform her duties over the past year, and that when she was asked to start teaching, she called her brothers, who then misbehaved with the principal.
Baqar went from one classroom to another and found that out of the 390 students, only 40 or 50 were present. Only the English teacher was seen teaching a class. The caretaker CM appreciated her, and lauded her method of teaching and her spirit. All the other classrooms were empty, and they looked like they had never been used.
Baqar learnt that even though it was a degree college, education was being imparted up to intermediate level. He expressed his displeasure, and asked how the college was made a degree-level institution when it had no BA and BSc courses to offer.
Witnessing such a state of negligence, inefficiency and indifference on the part of the DG colleges, the principal (BS-20) and the vice principal, the interim CM suspended them as well as the Islamic studies lecturer.
During his visit of two parks in the district, the Bagh-e-Saman and the Noorani Park, where a weekly bazaar was being organised, Baqar expressed his displeasure on witnessing the condition of the Bagh-e-Saman.
He said its land had been vacated on the Supreme Court’s order, but even then it had not been developed. He directed the municipal commissioner to develop the park and report to him on the matter.
He then directed District Central Deputy Commissioner Fawad Soomro to develop the Noorani Park and open it for the locals within the next four weeks. Baqar said the district is the most congested part of Karachi and people have no such grounds or parks to take their children to. He directed the DC to develop it within four weeks and report to him.
The caretaker CM also visited the Abu Turab Government Secondary School for Boys & Girls, where he found that the school lacks any controlling authority. The school was earlier owned by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), then it was devolved to the Central District Municipal Corporation (DMC), and now to the newly established Gulberg Town. Officers of the KMC, the defunct DMC and the town were present but none of them owned the school.
Two classes were being held at the school while the building had many empty classrooms. When Baqar asked for an explanation, the headmistress said the school’s water supply had been discontinued.
She also said they had no one to clean the classrooms, and enrolment had dropped considerably because they were not offering English-medium education. The interim CM directed Local Government Secretary Manzoor Shaikh to resolve the school’s issues and report to him.
On his way back to the CM House, Baqar visited the Sindh Government Hospital Liaquatabad, which he found relatively to be in a better hygienic condition. He inspected the old Covid wards, which were superb in terms of equipment and facilities, but were closed for the past two years. He expressed his displeasure and directed the hospital’s medical superintendent to use the wards for other patients.
He also checked the kitchen where food was prepared for 100 patients twice a day. He expressed his displeasure at the condition of the kitchen, directing the administration to renovate it and keep it properly cleaned.
On the conclusion of his visit, the caretaker CM directed Health Secretary Dr Manzoor Rizvi to upgrade the hospital’s entrance, which gave a gloomy and dull look that was enough to harass the patients while entering. He said the entrance should be properly renovated.