PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Wednesday witnessed a heated debate as members from the treasury benches traded barbs with the education minister over the performance of his department.
Muhammad Ali of Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), a coalition partner of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led provincial government, speaking about the shortage of headmasters at the Government High School and Government Higher Secondary School in Upper Dir, said 61 of the 67 schools in the district didn’t have headmasters or principals.
He said besides the shortage of senior staff, no new school was constructed in his constituency despite the government’s claim of having declared education emergency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Muhammad Ali said that only one primary school was given to his constituency in the Annual Development Programme (ADP) while 120 schools were needed. In his reply, Minister for Elementary and Secondary Education Muhammad Atif Khan said that being part of the government, the JI should quit the coalition if the party was not satisfied with the performance of the government.
“Why are they sitting on the treasury benches, if they are not satisfied,” he asked. He said that the JI had the portfolio of finance and the minister concerned should tell about the allocation and release of funds for development schemes in the education sector.
Sahibzada Sanaullah of Pakistan People’s Party also supported the stance of Muhammad Ali and said the list of newly promoted teachers didn’t have the name of a single teacher from Upper Dir.He said the teachers from other districts, who had been posted in Dir, were transferred back and that was the reason that the vacancies of headmasters and principals fell vacant.
Taking part in the debate, Mufti Janan and Mufti Fazal Ghafoor of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Sardar Hussain Babak of Awami National Party (ANP) and Sardar Aurangzeb Nalotha of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) said that funds were not being released for the establishment of new schools.
They said the opposition members were running from one office to another, but nobody could tell them about the delay in releasing the funds. The legislators said the ministers didn’t attend the assembly proceedings and development work had come to a standstill. They said that work on the school buildings, which started three years ago couldn’t be completed.
The opposition lawmakers said the government had announced education emergency in the province, but it didn’t take any step to bring improvement in the education sector. Senior Minister for Local Government and Rural Development Inayatullah and Finance Minister Muzaffar Said, while defending the government, said record legislation had been carried out and several development schemes were completed.
They claimed the government brought reforms in all sectors, including education department. Education Minister Muhammad Atif Khan assured the House that a number of teachers had been recently promoted and the shortage of headmasters and principals would be removed in a month.
The House saw an interesting situation when the education minister produced a letter, saying that Sahibzada Sanaullah had withdrawn his questions through the letter. However, Sahibzada Sanaullah denied having withdrawn his questions and said the letter produced by the minister was fake.
Deputy Speaker Dr Mehr Taj Roghani, who presided over the session, referred the matter to a committee headed by the secretary education.She asked him to submit a report within seven days as to who faked the signature of the lawmaker on the letter.The deputy speaker asked the education minister to conduct a survey about the shortage of schools and teaching staff.
