JI leader condemns PPP govt for deterioration in education sector

By Our Correspondent
January 23, 2025
Karachi Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Emir Monem Zafar (centre) addressesa press conference at the JI headquarters in Karachi on January 22, 2025. — FacebookKhijamaat

Karachi Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Emir Monem Zafar has condemned the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) government over what he says its senseless handling of the education sector of Sindh, and demanded that the government stop further deterioration of education in the province.

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Addressing a press conference at the JI headquarters in Karachi, Idara Noor-e-Haq, on Wednesday, he said the JI would resist the PPP’s onslaught on education.

He said students were the future of nations and the PPP government had continuously been damaging this future in Sindh. He said lecturers had been boycotting classes in 17 public sector universities across the province for the past one week and the students had been left with no other option but to protest for their due demands.

Zafar said legislation was being made to hand the universities over to bureaucrats, which was a totally wrong step in the wrong direction. He added that a proposal had already been approved by the provincial cabinet under which the requirement of PhD for the vice chancellor (VC) had been compromised and any grade 20 officer was made eligible for the post of VC.

He made it clear that the post of vice chancellor was not merely an administrative post as the vice chancellor not only oversaw the educational process but also led the academic council, academic board, syndicate and senate of the university. He added that a bureaucrat was not eligible to handle all this.

The JI leader criticised the Sindh government for the appointment of contract teachers in universities, instead of permanent faculty members. Talking about the school education sector, he said that 7.3 million children were out of schools, and the dropout ratio before the secondary level in public sector schools was 46 per cent.

He detailed that there were some 36,000 public sector primary schools, whereas the number of secondary schools clocked in at just 4,000. No matter what the causes were, the PPP government in Sindh was responsible for the situation, Zafar remarked.

On the recent results of the Intermediate first year examinations in Karachi, he said a vast majority of the students in Karachi had been declared failed, whereas the pass ratio in interior areas of the province was manifold higher compared to the megacity of Karachi.

He said the Board of Intermediate Education Karachi had done the same to students of Karachi last year. As a result of the JI's activism, the government had constituted a committee, led by NED University Vice Chancellor Dr Sarosh Lodi to investigate the matter, he said.

He went on to say that the committee had submitted its report to the government but those at the helm of affairs instead of taking a decisive action, had bestowed pre-medical students with 12 per cent and pre-engineering students with 15 per cent marks but never fixed the responsibility.

Ironically, he maintained, those held responsible in the report and recommended for strict departmental and legal actions were promoted to senior positions. He said the BIEK was being run on the basis of nepotism. A relative of a parliamentarian was made the board secretary, whereas the 12-member committee to inquire the recent exams scam was being headed by a close relative to the accused.

Zafar said the prevailing situation and nepotism would not be tolerated at any cost. He added that students of Karachi had announced a march on the Sindh Assembly building today (Thursday).

He said that earlier, a delegation of the University of Karachi’s teachers had arrived at the Idara Noor-e-Haq seeking the JI's support for their due demands. He declared the JI’s support for both the students and university teachers against the government.

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