MPAs demand exemplary punishment for attackers

Karachi
On the chehlum (the 40th day) of the 145 students and teachers killed by the Taliban in an attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar on December 16, the provincial assembly unanimously passed a resolution on Monday condemning the brutal attack.
All the lawmakers in the House stood up and offered special prayers for the students and teachers. They also prayed for the early recovery of the students, teachers and security personnel injured in the attack.
The resolution was separately read by Pakistan People’s Party MPA and education minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, Shaharyar Mahar of the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional, Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Khawaja Izhar-ul-Hassan; Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s Shafi Muhammad Jamot and the PPP’s Mahesh Kumar Malhani.
It read: “We condemn from the core of our hearts the barbaric, brutal and cowardly attack on the Army Public School, Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on 16 December, 2014 and the Taliban who left 132 students between the age of six and 14 years and some staff members dead and an equal number of others injured. We not only condemn but demand the arrest of the culprits immediately so that they may be convicted and awarded exemplary punishment for this heinous crime. We also convey our heartfelt message of condolence to the bereaved parents and their kith and kin that may Allah the Almighty keep their loved ones’ souls in peace.”
Finance Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah suggested the word “dead” in the resolution be replaced with “martyred”.
Afterwards, in consultation with the parliamentary leaders of the political parties, speaker Agha Siraj Durrani adjourned the session till Tuesday (today) in respect and memory of the victims.

PTI resignations
Durrani also restrained PML-F lawmaker Nusrat Seher Abbasi from raising the issue of the controversy surrounding the acceptance of resignations submitted by four Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MPAs. “As Abbasi did not belong to the PTI, she has no right to raise the issue,” he declared.
On January 21, Durrani had announced accepting the resignations that were submitted in September last year. However, the accepted resignations have not been forwarded to the Election Commission of Pakistan for further process.

Question hour
The Sindh education minister said the University of Karachi had been unable to set up campuses in Mithi and Naushahro Feroze despite a resolution passed by the provincial assembly in its previous tenure for this purpose.
Nisar Khuhro was responding to a query during the question hour on matters related to the education department.
Khuhro said the KU syndicate had discussed the issue of opening two campuses in other towns, but there had been no further progress on the matter.

New teachers
Khuhro said the government had recruited 15,538 new teachers since 2012 by conducting aptitude tests through the National Testing Service.
Around 1,972 posts for primary schoolteachers, 1,884 for junior schoolteachers and 550 for high schoolteachers are still vacant.
He said the government was considering a proposal that a system similar to the NTS-test should be introduced for the promotions of in-service government schoolteachers.
From 2009 to 2013, around 2,269 government college teachers have been promoted to the next grade.