Jamaat-e-Islami Karachi chief Monem Zafar on Tuesday demanded that the Sindh government end ad hoc policies in secondary and intermediate education boards, fill boards’ senior posts on merit and offer free scrutiny to intermediate students.
Speaking at a press conference at the JI’s city headquarters Idara Noor-e-Haq, Zafar said the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) government in the province is hell-bent on educational genocide of Karachi’s youth. He said students have been facing discrimination and a depressing scenario, be it the matric board, the intermediate board or MDCAT.
He condemned the prevailing situation in the education system, saying that students have been paying the price for the never-ending anti-Karachi and anti-education measures by the PPP government.
“On the one hand there is a deep sense of deprivation and hopelessness due to domestic socio-economic and political situations, while on the other, the PPP government has been causing troubles for students one after another.”
He highlighted that around five chairmen of the intermediate board have been changed in just one year. He said the government has been treating educational boards like police stations, changing their heads frequently. All the boards in Sindh are working on an ad hoc basis, he added.
He also said that the freedom and autonomy of all the universities have been put on stake by the PPP government. As a result of the flawed educational policies, the educational crises are keeping 27.3 million children aged between five and 16 years out of schools, he added.
Zafar said the JI has already constituted an educational committee to address the burning issue. He urged all the affected students to contact the JI’s committee so that the party can play its role in resolving their issues.
He also demanded that the PPP government put its house in order and revise its policy because a simple comparison among various educational boards in Sindh and the federation would reveal the fault lines.
Talking about open manholes, broken roads and dilapidated infrastructure in Karachi, he said the PPP has been ruling over the province for 16 consecutive years. He pointed out that the mayor cannot shrug off the matter of responsibility for several deaths due to open manholes. He asked who is responsible for the deaths of children if not the PPP government.
He also said the mayor holds drug addicts responsible for open manholes, but he needs to tell everyone where the addicts have come from, when the police, the administration and the policymakers work under the PPP’s authority.
The JI leader said his party has provided 15,000 manhole covers in nine towns of the city run by them. He claimed that all the subordinate organisations of the mayor have become a hub of corruption.